Wastewater Treatment Facility

Sequoia, Oregon
Back to Nature Engineering Firm

Olivia Nickel
Scott Blackstock
Mitchell Massengill
1

Contents
Table of Figures........................................................................................................... 2
Sequoia, Oregon......................................................................................................... 3
Back to Nature............................................................................................................ 4
Objectives............................................................................................................... 4
Tualatin River.............................................................................................................. 5
Durham Facility....................................................................................................... 5
Evaluation and Calculations....................................................................................... 6
Primary Treatment................................................................................................... 7
Grit Chamber Calculations................................................................................... 7
Primary Settling Tank Calculations.......................................................................7
Secondary Treatment.............................................................................................. 8
Aeration Basin...................................................................................................... 8
Waste Solids............................................................................................................ 9
Layout of Facility........................................................................................................ 9
Conclusion................................................................................................................ 12
Works Cited.............................................................................................................. 12

Table of Figures
Table 1: Map of Sherwood, Oregon with the Tualatin River to the north.....................3
Table 2: Twelve Engineering Design Principles............................................................4
Table 3: Location of Sequoia and Durham Plant.........................................................5
Facility Table 4: Durham Facility Layout......................................................................6
Table 5: Grit Chamber Design..................................................................................... 7
Table 6: Primary Settling Tank.................................................................................... 8
Table 7: Flowchart of Wastewater Treatment............................................................10
Table 8: Secondary Clarifier Design..........................................................................11

Sequoia, Oregon

Sequoia, formerly known as Sherwood, is a town in northern Oregon, approximately 18

miles from Portland, Oregon and 50 miles from the west coast. Its population has been
steadily increasing for the past 13 years and is now currently at 22,000 people. Sequoia is part
of the Tualatin Valley and is 4.31 square miles. This residential community is bordered by the
Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge to the north, which is the river that the wastewater is
deposited into when cleaned.

Table 1: Map of Sherwood, Oregon with the Tualatin River to the north

A terrible cold front blew in from the Pacific Ocean in 2013 as a result of global
climate change from harmful emissions. The town of Sherwood was frozen solid, forcing the
inhabitants to abandon their town. This lead to the town being overrun with brown bears,
which destroyed the infrastructure and kept the inhabitants from returning to their homes.
3

These bears have now all successfully been relocated and the city thoroughly defrosted, so it
is now time to rebuild.
The town lost many of its important structures such as water reclamation plant,
wastewater treatment plant, city hall buildings, solid waste management, and more. Though
the town has suffered greatly from this tragedy, it opened up the opportunity to start
completely fresh in Sequoia. The citizens have expressed a desire to rebuild their town using
green technology and sustainable practices. Sequoia has been given a new start, and a chance
to serve as a model to the rest of the world that starting from the ground up can lead to
innovative ideas that will lead to increased standard of living for its citizens.

Back to Nature
Started in May, 2013 by three Environmental Engineer graduates of The University of
Georgia, Back to Nature Engineering firm is dedicated to our motto of do no harm" when it
comes to our designs. We believe that we do not own nature, but instead are just borrowing it
from future generations. The central ideas of eliminating wastes, working with the
environment, and making as little impact on the surroundings as possible are just three of the
twelve designing principles our firm practices.

Twelve Principles
Inherent Rather Than Circumstantial
Prevention Instead of Treatment
Design for Separation
Maximize Efficiency
Output-Pulled Versus Input-Pushed
Converse Complexity
Durability Rather Than Immortality
Meet Need, Minimize Excess
Minimize Material Diversity
Integrate Material and Energy Flows
Design for Commercial "Afterlife"
Renewable Rather Than Depleting
Table 2: Twelve Engineering Design Principles

These principles outline every project we commit to. We hope to make Sequoia a
great example of what green technology is capable of. Our team values stakeholder analysis
as much as we value the integrity of our designs, so to uphold this belief we will be holding a
4

city council meeting for the public so we can hear what the citizens want out of their new
town.

Objectives
Back to Nature will advise the city of Sequoia in the location of their new wastewater
treatment facility as well as the design of the facility. We will do this by using population
trends to predict future populations which will determine the capacity of our facility. Using
this capacity we will be designing the volumes of each step in the wastewater treatment
process, from the influent water from the community to the effluent water going into the
river.

Tualatin River

The Tualatin River in Oregon is a protected river that runs through the Tualatin River

National Wildlife Refuge. Because this will be where the new facility will be dumping its
effluent water, we must comply with the strict laws on the standards of components that are
in this water. The Tualatin Basin Natural Resources Coordinating Committee, which oversees
the protection of the Tualatin Basin, has a policy of Low Impact Development Approaches that
they encourage the inhabitants of the Basin to follow. Since Sequoia is incorporated in this
area, we hope to follow these guidelines when building our facility.

Durham Facility
The previous facility located in Durham, Oregon, claimed that the water it expelled
into the river actually enhanced it. Our team would like to continue to do this and so we will
be following a similar model as the Durham facility. The facility also was a national leader in
sustainable wastewater treatment facilities and won several awards such as being LEED
certified, Oregon Outstanding Reuse Customer Award, EPA National Clean Water Act
Recognition, EPA Plant of the Year in 2005, and NACWA Gold Award for 100% compliance eight
times since 1995. With such an incredible track record, using the same model as before would
be the best way to comply with the Twelve Principles our company upholds. The facility
treated the wastewater of many cities and had a capacity of 210,000 people. The new facility
will only be for the town of Sequoia and its population.

Table 3: Location of Sequoia and Durham Plant

Facility Table 4: Durham Facility Layout

Evaluation and Calculations

The population of Sequoia is 22,000 people and this number will be used to calculate

the size of the facility needed. Since Sequoia has shown an ever increasing population, the
facility should be capable of future populations as well as serve the current one with
6

efficiency. Our team has determined that the plant design volume that matches the needs of
the town is 92 gallons per day per person. Using this measurement, we are able to determine
the size of each step of the wastewater treatment process. Designing too large of a facility
would cause unnecessary usage of resources and unmanageable upkeep of the plant. Too
small of a facility, and the town would suffer from frequent backups in sewage systems and
this could cause breakages in pipelines that would lead to the Tualatin River being polluted.
Other important measurements to be used are the peak hourly flow of 1.6 m 3/s, average
hourly flow of 0.7 m3/s, and the local effluent standards of biological oxygen demand and
total suspended solids. The BOD5 and TSS standards of 10 mg/L are determined locally and
due to the Tualatin River being heavily protected, these standards are a lot lower than
normally accepted.

Primary Treatment
The typical design of a wastewater treatment plant is split into primary and secondary
treatment. In the primary section, about 60 percent of the TSS, 30 percent of the BOD, and
20 percent of the phosphorus are removed from the wastewater. The waste that exits the
primary stage is heavily watered down and this water is later removed and sent back through
the whole system of treatment.
Grit Chamber Calculations
The grit chamber is responsible for the removal of larger particles, usually with
gravities between 1.3 and 2.7. These particles are removed to prevent damage to the pipes
and other mechanical equipment in the later stages of treatment. Sometimes larger organic
matters and pathogens are removed at this stage as well. Our team has decided to use an
aerated grit chamber, which is when air is introduced on one side of the tank so that it
enables the grit to settle out of the water. This process also adds oxygen to the water which is
advantageous in the next stages of the purification.
Using the capacity of 92 gallons per person/per day and the current population, the
facility should be able to handle 2,024,000 gallons per day. In designing the grit chamber of
the plant, we used the design of having two chambers. In the table below are our calculations
of the size of these chambers. The size of these chambers should be able to handle a grit
volume of 2.1 m3/day.
Two Chambers
Volume of each chamber
Chamber length

144 m3
11 m
7

Chamber width

4.5 m

Table 5: Grit Chamber Design

Using these calculations, we determined the hydraulic retention time in each to be 6.9
minutes and the total air requirement to be 7.7 m3/min.
Primary Settling Tank Calculations
In the settling tank, solids settle to the bottom of the tank where they are removed
and collected as liquid-solid sludge. For this facility, the surface overflow rate (abbreviated
OR) is 48 m3/m2-day and the depth of the two circular tanks are 3.5 m each. The area of the
tank should be 616 m2 and the volume 2155 m3. These calculations use the peak and average
hourly flow that were determined earlier. In order to meet capacity of the influent, the
observed OR is different than the original. This new calculation is done after determining the
sizing of the tank so that more water can be handled by the system than previously
determined. This new rate is 49 m3/m2-day and the peak flow OR is 112 m3/m2-day. Having
this peak flow rate is another measure taken to ensure that at maximum capacity, the facility
can handle the influent amount at any time. Other calculations for the settling tank are the
detention times of the system at the overflow rate (1.71 hours) and the peak rate (0.75
hours). Detention times are the amount of time that it will take for the water to flow through
that particular system given a certain flow rate.
Primary Tank
Peak Flow
Average Flow
Clarifier Area
Clarifier Volume
Detention Time at Peak Flow

138240 m3/day
60480 m3/day
616 m2
2155 m3
0.75 hrs or 45 min

Table 6: Primary Settling Tank

Secondary Treatment
During secondary treatment, microorganisms are used to decompose organic matters
that have high BOD values. The microorganisms need to be saturated with the organic matter
in order to get rid of them. This part of the treatment process includes the aeration basin and
the removal and treatment of the sludge. Sludge is collected both in the primary and
secondary stages of the process. The mean cell retention time is the growth of the sludge. If
the sludge age is low, then the mean cell retention time will also be low. It is important for
the facility to dehydrate and stop the growth of the sludge so that it doesnt multiply.

Aeration Basin
In order to determine the correct amount of BOD coming into the plant, our team of
engineers took a sample from the influent to decide how to design an appropriate secondary
treatment plant. It is important to expect a certain amount of BOD, because this affects the
removal of the microorganisms still left in the water after primary treatment. This sample
taken from the influent was the chemical oxygen demand (COD), but this relates to the BOD
in a 1:3/4 ratio. In the experiment we found the COD to be 673 mg/L. Using this, the
incoming BOD value should be 309.5 mg/L. This value will determine the sizing of the
aeration basin, which has a volume of 7.12e5 liters, and the amount of time spent in this
section, which is 2.23 hours.
The food to microorganism ratio is also determined through this experiment and is
used to determine the amount of microorganisms needed to break down the organic matter
still in the water. We get this ratio through the influent BOD number we just calculated and
the determined volume of the basin. The F/M ratio for this plant should be 0.74 kg BOD per kg
of mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) per day. MLSS is used to determine the measurement
of TSS in the aeration basin. If the sludge wastage rates were to increase, this would be a
result of increased MLSS.
The overall retention time used in these calculations is a low value of 5 days. Since
this value is low, meaning it spans a shorter amount of time, the F/M ratio will be high and
the power needed for the aeration basin will be greater to get rid of all the matter still left in
the secondary wastewater.

Waste Solids
Wastes are produced in each step of the treatment process: the grit chamber, primary
treatment, and secondary treatment. The Durham plant won many of its awards for how
efficient it was with the waste produced at its plant. Much of the waste can be used as
fertilizer and utilized by local farmers as irrigation water. As part of Back to Natures mission
statement, we would like to continue this tradition and reuse as much of the produced waste
as possible. We calculated that the plant produces about 995.3 kg primary solids per day and
484.2 kg secondary solids per day. These calculations are based off of the volume of the
aeration basin.

Layout of Facility
The wastewater treatment process is an intricate design with many steps. We have
discussed many of these steps already, but the flow chart below helps break the system down
even further to show a step-by-step analysis. In most wastewater treatment designs, gravity is
used as an environmental and efficient way to move the water along the process. A standard
of about 0.5 meters is decreased with each step to utilize this. A minimum change of three
meters would be in place in the following design at the Sequoia plant.

Table 7: Flowchart of Wastewater Treatment

Water that flows through the treatment system is coming from the community of
Sequoia. This includes the homes of the citizens, businesses, factories, and drains. This water
is all directed to the facility through underground pipes. The first step this water goes
through is the grit chamber to remove the larger particles that would, if left in the water,
clog the pipes and cause damages throughout the system. We determined the size of this
chamber in our previous calculations to make sure we have enough space to filter the water.
The constituents removed are then taken to a landfill to be disposed.
After the grit chamber the influent passes through the settling tank. Like the grit
chamber, we had to calculate the volume of the tanks needed for this stage. The settling tank
removes the next biggest size of constituents in the water, too small to be collected in the
grit chamber, but big enough to settle to the bottom on the tank and be extracted as sludge.
The sludge goes to a collection tank called a sludge digester where it is processed for later
use as fertilizer or disposed of at a landfill.
Before it reaches the digester, the waste from the primary treatment is dewatered,
and this water goes through the entire process again. The dehydrated sludge is pumped into
the sludge digester at a certain rate, an SRT value, and the design of this tank is determined
10

by this value. The SRT value is the mass of solids in the reactor divided by the mass of solids
removed every day. For our facility, we used an SRT value of 5 days, which is relatively low.
After going through the primarily clarifier, the water is now ready to begin the
secondary treatment phase. The main goal of this process is to help remove Nitrogen,
Phosphorus, and the soluble BODs in the water. This biological treatment takes place in two
phases of the system, the anoxic tank and the aerobic tank. In the anoxic tank, Phosphate is
released and the water undergoes denitrification. The water then travels to the aerobic phase
where nitrification and BOD removal takes place. A procedure called modified Ludzak-Ettinger
process happens in the aerobic tank where ammonia in the water becomes nitrate and this
nitrate is recycled back to the anoxic tank for denitrification. The Phosphate is removed in
the aerobic phase in the form of activated sludge and the BOD is transformed into CO 2 and
water.

Table 8: Secondary Clarifier Design

The effluent now moves to the secondary clarifier where the water has time to settle
in order to remove the activated sludge. A portion of the sludge, known as return activated
sludge (RAS), is recycled back into the system right after the primary clarifier in order to be
used for the biological treatment process again. The excess activated sludge, referred to as
waste activated sludge (WAS), is treated as waste and sent to the sludge digester in order to

11

prevent a disproportion of biomass. Our facility will produce roughly 995 kg of primary solids
per day and 484.2 kg of secondary solids per day.
The final step of the process is for the effluent to go through disinfection. This
disinfection will consist of UV radiation that is used to kill the remaining bacteria from the
water. Once this is completed the effluent is ready to be distributed. UV light is chosen over
Chlorine due to its lower costs and because no toxic residuals are left over after the process.

Conclusion
The team of engineers here at Back to Nature are confident that we have made the
most efficient and well structured plant for the city of Sequoia. The citizens expressed their
desire for the plant to use green technology in every process that it could and we believe we
have accomplished this desire. Through our careful calculations, we have designed the plant
to work without problems under any strain of human activity, while not overextending and
making the plant larger than needed.
There will be a meeting open to the public on Monday, November 2nd where our team
will present our report. Attendance and questions would be much appreciated, as the input of
stakeholders is one of the twelve principles we uphold on our firm. We hope to see the
citizens of Sequoia at the meeting, excited to review their new treatment plant.

Works Cited
City, State Abbreviation. Map. Google Maps. Google, Publication Date. Web. Access Date.
Clean Water Services. "Advanced Wastewater Treatment Processes." Liu/Food Food and
Agricultural Wastewater Utilization and Treatment (2007): 145-65. May 2014. Web. 23
Oct. 2015.
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System. Concord, NH: Commission, 1980. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.
U.S. Census Bureau. "Population." In the U.S. - Google Public Data Explorer. N.p., 24 July
2015. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.
Mihelcic, James R., and Julie Beth. Zimmerman. "Wastewater and Stormwater."
Environmental Engineering: Fundamentals, Sustainability, Design. 2nd ed. Hoboken,
NJ: John Wiley & Sons/Wiley, 2010. 440-88. Print.
12

Clarification. Boiler Efficiency. N.p., n.d Web. 01 Nov. 2015.

13