Process Description of the new wastewater system 1.

0 Process Description
This section of the Operations Manual provides general information about the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) at the Brayton Fire Training Field in College Station, TX. It provides a description of the basic process and major subsystems, equipment arrangement drawings, and piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs).

1.1 Introduction
This section provides some basic background information about the WWTP process. It also provides a description of the WWTP process chemistry and microbiology as well as the design basis for the new system. 1.1.1 Purpose of the WWTP The 120-acre Brayton Fire Training Field in College Station is the largest in the United States and includes full-scale buildings, towers, tanks, industrial plant structures and a ship that are used during life-like training simulations. During training exercises, multiple extinguishing agents are used to put out fires at the live-fueled props or training stations. These extinguishing agents, unburned fuel and cooling water are collected in drains and ditches on or near the props and sent to the wastewater treatment plant in order to recycle the water and to meet the facility demand. 1.1.2 Process Synopsis Process water and stormwater from the lower field are collected and pumped from a lift station to a diversion box south of Cormier Street. Process water and stormwater from the upper field flows by gravity through collection ditches to the diversion box where it mixes with lower field water. Normally, the combined stream flows by gravity through the rotary drum screen to remove debris, and then to a grit chamber to remove heavy solids. Solids removed by the rotary screen are discharged to a bin for disposal. Solids removed in the grit chamber are pumped to a grit dewatering system where the grit is discharged to a bin for disposal and the water is recycled back to the grit chamber. After the grit chamber, the water flows into a lift station where it is pumped into one of the two equalization tanks. During heavy storm events, stormwater in excess of 3,000 gpm will over flow a weir in the diversion box and will flow into the stormwater detention basin for later controlled discharge into the lift station. The stormwater detention basin is designed to hold the first 0.5 of run-off from the site. When the detention basin is full, stormwater in excess of the first 0.5 of run-off (i.e., stormwater is excess of the first flush) will go from the diversion box directly to White Creek via a sluice gate. Since fire-fighting activities usually occur between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm on weekdays, the equalization tanks will be used to collect water as it is generated, and release it to the remaining treatment processes over a 24-hour period. The accumulation during generation provides both flow and chemistry equalization. The flow rate through the system is to be regulated such that water is accumulated from Monday to Friday,

resulting in nearly full equalization tanks by Friday afternoon. This stored volume feeds the system over the weekend when no fire-fighting activities occur. The contents of the equalization tanks are agitated with jet mixers that ensure chemical equalization with a minimum of oxygenation. A scum collection mechanism has been included as part of the floatation mixer to capture oily substances should they accumulate in the tanks. This oily mixture is conveyed to the slop oil tanks. Water flows out of the equalization tanks by gravity through a control valve to a flocculation basin. It should be noted that the equalization tank selector valves are manually operated. Only one valve should be open at a time. An in-line mixer is located at the inlet side of the flocculation basin where a polymer is metered into the basin to coagulate and flocculate larger solids. The polymer also enhances oil coalescence and the attachment of bubbles to light particles. Metal salts (e.g., alum or ferric sulfate) may also be metered into the flocculation basin to aid in the coagulation/flocculation process. Wastewater flow from the flocculation basin is split between two dissolved air flotation (DAF) units. Each DAF unit is composed of an inlet mixing chamber, a separation chamber and an effluent tank. Each DAF unit has a recycle stream that is mixed with air to the point of supersaturation under relatively high pressure. When the DAF recycle and influent streams are combined in the mixing chamber, the pressure is reduced and tiny bubbles form as the combined streams reach the separation chamber. As the bubbles rise through the liquid, they join emulsified oil droplets and other particles to form a float layer on the surface of the separation chamber. Surfactants in the wastewater also cause foam to form as part of the float layer. The float layer is mechanically skimmed off of the top of the DAF and accumulated in a small tank from which it is periodically pumped to one of two slop oil tanks. Coagulated solids settle to the bottom of the DAF unit where they are periodically collected by chain-driven scrapers and pumped to a sludge holding tank. The treated water leaving the DAF unit flows by gravity to the sequencing batch reactors. As the SBR is filling, the wastewater is mixed with the biological solids (activated sludge) settled from the last wastewater batch treated by the aerators. Air is supplied from blowers through a diffused aeration system in each SBR tank. After the aeration/mixing cycle is complete, the activated sludge is allowed to settle into a thickened sludge at the bottom of the SBR, forming a distinct decant (treated) wastewater layer on top. A floating boom decants this treated water layer from the SBR tank and discharges it by gravity to Pond 2. Sludge pumps remove waste activated sludge from the thickened sludge layer and convey it to the sludge holding tank. The solids in the sludge holding tank are kept in suspension by an axially-mounted mixer. The waste activated sludge is mixed with the DAF unit underflow in the sludge holding tank, and the combined sludge stream is fed to a belt filter by a feed pump. The filtrate from the belt press is pumped back to the lift station and the sludge is collected and taken to off-site disposal.