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Facility Tours
The Wastewater Treatment Facility’s normal
business hours are from 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM Monday through Friday and 6:30 AM
to 10:30 AM on weekends and holidays.
We encourage anyone interested to call ahead and
make tour arrangements. Tours of the facility takes approximately 1 hour.
The tours are mainly outdoors, so dress accordingly.
History of the Facility
The original sewage treatment system was
constructed early in the 20th century. At that time, the discharge went
directly into the Mississippi River. In 1956, the system was upgraded
and expanded resulting in the first wastewater treatment facility being
built on the current site. In 1971,
there was an expansion of the facility from a primary to a secondary
treatment plant. These improvements included new pumping equipment, two
primary clarifiers, and an aerobic digesting tank. The secondary
treatment consisted of a mix-type aeration basin for the activated
sludge process. The facility went through upgrades in 1982, 1987 and
1992 as well as a major renovation in 1995.
The renovation included new final
clarifiers, biosolids processing equipment, increased storage to over 1
million gallons, a larger and more efficient activated sludge aeration
basin, grit removal, and higher output blowers that provide oxygen to
the bacterial life and suppress odors in the storage tanks through the
use of more efficient piping and diffusers.
In 1997, the facility began treating
the wastewater for phosphorus through biological and as necessary,
chemical (aluminum sulfate) treatment. The sanitary sewer collection
system has approximately 27 miles of piping and also includes six sewage
collection lift stations that pump the sewage to the treatment facility.
The facility can process up to two million gallons per day of sewage. In addition to the City’s collection
system, the treatment facility also accepts the wastewater from the
Towns of Bridgeport and Prairie du Chien as well. |
