Wednesday, April 27, 2016, I signed up to take a tour of our rather gorgeous new sewer. I know that sounds...off. But it is not! Everthing is super, super clean and sparkly, and if you are any sort of a gear head, or someone into biological processes, or have an appreciation of modern farm architecture, this is the tour for you! You do have to make an appointment, which you can do by calling Danielle at 528-3030. Tours are, at the moment, being scheduled for Wednesdays and will probably be in the moring to avoid the afternoon wind. The group is kept small - there were as I recall, seven of us. It is so much better for hearing all that our tour guide told us and to be able to ask questions. It lasted about an hour, and wear layers, and of course comfy shoes, although not that much walking was involved. They do need a minumum amount of people to do the tour however.
Park on the property, right near the Administration Building, which was the first stop. No need to park at the cemetery! (As always, click on the images to see the larger versions.)
Trevor was our tour guide (standing, on the left.) We are in the conference room.
Below is the hallway in the building, the clerestory windows are beautiful.
The plant operators are working on getting the biology right. There is not enough water there to get the cleaned up water to tertiary quality yet; they had 28,000 gallons swirling around in the oxidation ditch last Wednesday, and the week before it was 15,000; it will be more still when you read this - and this place is at work 24/7/365 - no time off.
Where did all that water come from as hook-ups can only go so fast and we area all taking shorter showers? The Pismo Beach Wastewater Treatment Facility! Multiple truckloads of "stuff" was brought up here and either dumped in the oxidation ditch, or maybe it went throught the headworks first, I forgot to ask.
Let's visit the lab. Down the hallway and on the left.
There was a nifty chart showing the kinds of bugs found in sludge and wastewater.
We got to see some larger biological units swimming around in a sample of well water near Baywood. I'm so glad I am not getting water from this well. Copepods. You really don't want moving chunks in your drinking water.
They were swimming like mad in the beaker, not very water ballet-like, but more like free verse poetry, kind of all over the place. And nothing smelled bad. Wish now that I had shot a video. Copepod images.
Not exactly related, but the team was happy about Daisy Hill getting hooked up as the bigger flows helps. That day they were waiting for the spike to indicate that Bayridge had hooked up, Now when this plant is up and runnng, 33 acre feet a year will be returned to Bayridge to be disbursed at two different places. I'm not sure if that is what is coming out of there though, and to break down what that means as input on a daily basis, is beyond my math capabilities at 1:19 a.m., or at any time at this point in my life. Were I high school aged, I could have told you. Maybe this has happened to you too.
We then looked into a microscope at even tinier bugs which eat the even tinier bugs which is the process for cleaning the water up of the bad stuff. I will have to provide a sketch.
These guys were from the "mixed liquor." Not exactly a Tequila Sunrise however. No way to photograph him, and he was transparent. Winsome, I'd say; would make a cute stuffed animal. And yes, they do make stuffed animals of cells like this. These are the indicator organisms that lets you know nitrification and denitrification is happening. The microscope was not a 20,000x or whatever, to show those really teensy ones.
Next, on to the Maintenance Building. This is where if it breaks, it gets fixed.
Next stop, Headworks.
I have no idea what this is below. But it looks good in a sci-fi sort of way.
The headworks remove the rags and spoons and wood and whatever else does not squish from the flushed stuff. These items are washed, the bacteria saved, the stuff compacted and sent to the landfill. This is not a formal source for biology however.
OK, end of Part I. As soon as I can, I will finish the tour. There are many fun steps ahead!
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