X

Squeezing water out of sewage could save Potsdam money

Posted 1/13/19

By CRAIG FREILICH North Country Now POTSDAM -- A sludge screw press, part of Potsdam’s wastewater treatment upgrade, soon could be saving village taxpayers some money by making sewage sludge more …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Squeezing water out of sewage could save Potsdam money

Posted

By CRAIG FREILICH

North Country Now

POTSDAM -- A sludge screw press, part of Potsdam’s wastewater treatment upgrade, soon could be saving village taxpayers some money by making sewage sludge more easily disposable.

Regular sewage sludge is what’s left after a treatment plant filters and drains waste. It is typically taken to a disposal site by tanker truck.

But if the sludge can be pressed to expel more water, what’s left is called “dry cake,” and it weighs less and is easier and cheaper to transport than liquid waste.

Installation of such a press is one of the village wastewater treatment plant upgrades in progress now.

“We hope to start using it in the next week or two,” said Potsdam Village Administrator Greg Thompson after Monday night’s Board of Trustees meeting.

A few details still have to be worked out.

The village will have to add a polymer to the mixture in the correct proportion “to make it safe,” said Thompson.

Transformation of the liquid waste into dry cake “will save on hauling fees and overall cost by decreasing the weight and volume,” he said.

The village now makes four to five sludge transport runs a week. The plan now is to press the liquid waste a couple of times a week for transport to Casella Waste System ’s facility in Potsdam.