From 65 Cents to 95 Cents per 750 Gallons of Water
August 28th, 2010
The ultraviolet light helps in purifying water from the local wastewater treatment plant into Dry Turkey Creek. The system being relatively new and only third of its kind in the state is financed by a loan from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment at $1,127 million. Recently, the first rate increase of sewers happened which is why according to the wastewater plant superintendent, no increases will be expected. Before, the price of a 750 gallon of water was 65 cents and now, it increased to 95 cents. You can get the best water tanks information by visiting this website.
This project did not exactly need extra income but rates increase because improvements like this needed revenues. To remove harmful bacteria and solids, the local wastewater treatment plant uses a sludge purifying system. A chemicalfree process, this three step treatment results about 1.8 million gallons of water a day to be disposed into Dry Turkey Creek.
The plant supervisor said that to improve the quality of water in streams, the Environmental Protection Agency mandated tougher discharge standards for wastewater treatment plants. The water discharged by them is infected, according to him. Due to the risks of using chlorine, they don’t anymore use this chemical. Water undergoes first the process of ultraviolet light in order for it to be cleansed before placing it into the stream. He said that the system involves a series of ultraviolet lamps that look similar to long fluorescent bulbs. A total of 36 lamps will be used in the process where 12 lamps for normal conditions and 24 lamps for high wastewater flows.
The quality of stream water should have improved if millions of gallons of disinfected water are added and thereby, getting rid of pathogens in the wastewater which make people sick. The county would sell their current small ultraviolet light after it is being used to treat the city?s golf course for them to be able to buy a new one. The state gives out loan programs for the communities to be able to pay for the expensive ultraviolet treatment system, as what the information officer of Kansas Department of Health and Environment has said. Two communities already purchased the ultraviolet treatment systems with the help of the state revolving fund. You can get the best concrete water tanks information by visiting this website.
The 20 year loan carries a 3.03 percent interest rate. A special kind of wavelength from ultraviolet light will stop microorganisms from generating more DNA chains. By doing so, it efficiently stops their growth plus it will kill them in the process.
Though costly, ultraviolet disinfection is safer because it is nonchemical and nontoxic and even requires lesser employees to operate. Now, employees don’t have to deal with toxic chemicals such as chlorine. A $200 million Environmental Protection Agency grant was the startup amount for the loan program. Because the state imposed interest on that money, it began generating enough cash to finance low cost loans for city wastewater treatment projects. The city commissioner said that the new ultraviolet system will be large enough to handle future growth. He said that the community disposes an average of 1.6 million to 1.8 million gallons of waste a day, but the plant can handle up to 3 million gallons.
The new system they intend to buy will be a sizeable unit that can accommodate the entire discharge of the plant. According to the city commissioner, the city containing about 13,000 people is seeing steady growth. To accommodate future growth, it even has plans to further expand its sewer infrastructure. Rising of rates is not going to happen in the near future. According to him, increase should carry them into the future for they have analyzed their rate charges a year ago and increased them in small amounts to take new growth into consideration.
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