By Tracy Overstreet
tracy.overstreet@theindependent.com

"We need a clear understanding of what's coming our way and need the ability to handle that," Hornady said.

Obviously the city's plant hasn't been able to handle what's been coming its way as the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) cited the city four times in the last nine months for wastewater discharge violations.

The city self-reported a fifth violation that occurred March 28.

Every city violation could be traced back to an overload of discharges from the JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plant, which prompted Hornady to threaten disconnecting Swift from being able to discharge into the wastewater treatment plant.

JBS responded by hiring an environmental engineer to speed up improvements already under way to its on-site pre-treatment lagoon.

Hornady said shutting off Swift, which would effectively shut down production at the meatpacking plant, is "furthest from the top" of things she wants to do.

After all, Swift is the city's largest employer and the wastewater treatment plant's largest customer, she said. Swift produces about 50 percent of the waste into the wastewater treatment plant and accounts for about 57 percent of the wastewater treatment plant income. The plant's income is paid by sewer ratepayers, not by city taxpayers.

But Hornady said the string of violations points out a need for solutions from both Swift and the city.

The city has run a wastewater treatment plant since the early 1900s. The current facility was built in 1966 and upgraded in 1980 and 1995.

The wastewater treatment plant serves the entire city and runs 24 hours a day.

More than 215 miles of sewer pipelines and 15 lift stations bring in about 12 million gallons of sewage a day.

That sewage includes human waste, food waste, washwater and industrial, food processing and agricultural wash waste.

Once the sewage comes into the plant, it goes through about 10 separate treatment/cleaning processes before it's discharged into an outfall ditch located just east of Swift Road.

That outfall ditch empties into the Wood River which empties into the Platte.

It was that ditch and 24 miles of the Wood and Platte rivers that became contaminated from discharges on March 28 that then led to a kill of more than 10,600 fish.

DEQ monitors the discharges, including the pH; carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD), which is a measure of oxygen content in the water; total suspended solids; ammonia as nitrogen; acute toxicity; and fecal coliform.

The city's CBOD levels were about three times in excess of what they should have been and are being blamed for the fish kill, the city said.

The city is permitted to discharge up to 40 parts per million of carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand and instead had a level of 110.3 parts per million.

The city has been completing routine upgrades of the wastewater treatment plant, and has more in the works.

Hornady said solutions on both ends need to be found fast.

Work done and work needed

Here's a look at some of the most recent changes to the wastewater treatment plant and work that is included in the plant's long-term capital improvement plan.

Completed improvements

Final Basin Launder Covers: Launder covers are placed on the perimeter of the final clarifier basins to block sunlight. The sunlight encourages algae growth. Algae reduces the ability of the ultra-violet system to disinfect the discharge from the wastewater treatment plant. Algae can also increase the suspended solids in the discharge. Work is complete.

Aeration basin diffuser gas cleaning system: There are aeration diffusers on the bottom of the four aeration basins that are located at the eastern edge of the wastewater treatment plant. The aeration diffusers are labor and time consuming to clean. An HCL cleaning system was installed. The installation was performed by wastewater treatment plant staff as time allowed.

2008-09 improvements

Building No. 6 addition: The Building No. 6 addition will add work space areas and a break room for employees. The old break room was grossly undersized and workspace was very limited for many employees. The city of Grand Island is the general contractor for the building addition. A good share of the work is being performed by waste water staff with the remainder of the work being contracted out. Work is close to 90 percent complete and depending on the demands for the employees' time that are working on the addition, work will wrap up in a month or two.

Lift Station No. 22 and forcemain for National Guard facility: The work is well under way and will be completed this summer. The Nebraska Army National Guard Aviation Support Facility will have gravity sanitary sewer leaving their new facility to the lift station. The lift station will pump the sewage through a force main across the south end of the airport property and discharge into a gravity sanitary sewer main along Sky Park Road. Work will be complete this summer.

Lift Station No. 19 force main relocation for Capital Avenue widening: The bids for the force main were included in the bids for the Capital Avenue widening project that was opened on March 27. The city would like to award the project to Diamond Engineering and is asking for the Nebraska Department of Roads to concur. If state approval is given, the Grand Island City Council could be asked to award the contract during a May council meeting. Work would then start this summer. The bulk of the work this construction this year would be underground sanitary sewer and storm sewer. The entire project would be finished in summer or early fall 2009.

Future improvements

Primary clarifier mechanisms: The mechanisms turn in the primary basins and plow or push sludge to the center and skim floatables and grease off the top. The design work and construction project for replacing the mechanisms was pushed back during budget discussions in summer 2007.

Lift Station No. 21: Lift Station No. 21 is a replacement lift station for Lift Station No. 19 located at Diers and Capital Avenue. Design is pretty much complete, but construction will not happen until after the Capital Avenue widening project is complete and the work is in an approved budget.

Compost Facility/Anaerobic Digester: At a city council meeting in August 2007, Public Works Director Steve Riehle recommended the city shelf the plan for a compost facility. Design work was complete, but questions about odor had been raised. Instead, Riehle asked the council to approve $750,000 in the budget for designing an acid gas anaerobic digestion system for the wastewater treatment plant that would serve the community for 20 years without Swift's loading. The thought was that it would accommodate Swift's loadings once Swift's own expansion to its anaerobic pre-treatment lagoon and new anaerobic digester (called Microgy) are on-line. Riehle did not want to move forward until the city was more certain on Swift's timelines for its improvements. Riehle plans to update the council at a study session Monday night before moving forward to hire a consultant.