A New Approach to Handle Alum Sludge From Water Treatment Plants: Will Continuous Disposal of Alum Sludge Affect Wastewater Operation?

Detroit Water Treatment Plants have initiated a study of Alum sludge disposal alternatives to improve current practice. Continuously daily disposal of alum sludge to wastewater treatment plant is one of the alternatives. A major consideration is if there is a disruption to WWTP daily process. The objectives of the study were to determine at what point if any, alum sludge disposal would result in disruption to WWTP primary settling process, and to compare effects of the two disposal methods (new proposed vs. current seasonal disposal) on WWTP operation. Laboratory simulation tests were conducted. The study showed that the daily disposal has no effect on primary sludge settling when compared with the seasonal disposal. The proposed method could benefit both water and wastewater operations by causing less problems compared with the current disposal method to wastewater operation, and could save costs for water operations associated with installation of centrifuges and landfill issues.