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Employee Spotlight: Al Rich Celebrates 45 Years

This employee spotlight features Al Rich who just celebrated 45 years of working for Charlotte Water. As a Project Coordinator in the Engineering Division, his experience has allowed him to…

A Cheaper Sugar for Sweet Tooth Bugs (Substitute for Acetic Acid)

McDowell Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant is one of the most technologically advanced in removing nutrients and enhancing downstream water quality. Sustainable innovations are nothing new to operators. Since 2001, sugar…

Diagram titled Charlotte Water Wastewater Connection in in black font depicts a residential street with a house on the corner, roadway is depicted with green grass on either side of a dark grey roadway and blue cyclist riding along. In the distance against a blue sky is a depiction of a city skyline. Above ground is a light grey sidewalk, green shrubs with yellow dots, and a blue one story home with blue roof and grey window. The graphic of the home depicts where sewer vent runs vertically in the house via a grey column, white font lettering Sewer Vent point to this column. Below street level, the ground area is cut away to show a side view: dirt is navy blue and network of sewer lines are dark green with light grey trim. The main is the large pipe underneath the street and is marked Sewer Main in white font; from the curb to the house is the Sewer Lateral section of pipe also marked with white font; and from a white round service port in the grass between the house and street a pipe descends vertically into the ground connecting to the Sewer Lateral, this vertical pipe is called Sanitary Sewer Clean Out and is indicated as such. Immediately below the edge of the side walk closest to the house is a dotted line indicating the area from that line to the street is Charlotte Water Responsibility in black font and to the right of that dotted line towards the house, the black font letters Homeowner Responsibility appears.

A Foul Odor Outside May or May Not Be Wastewater

Have you ever ventured outside and something quite astonishing assaulted your nose? It may be easy to pin the blame on a wastewater treatment plant that could be nearby. However,…

Diagram titled in blue caps font Waste Water Treatment at top left describes the workflow of waste water treatment from residential home on its 10 step journey to the waterways. Landscape of the diagram is blue sky at the top, green space representing grass in the middle and the bottom depicts a water way connecting to a lake. All the structures described are using a graphic design of navy blue and light blue tones representing any body of water aspect, all pipes connecting everything are olive green. 1- residential home with navy blue caps font next to it, Waste Water From Home Enters Sanitary Sewer; 2 - large gravity filter structure with tank is identified with blue caps font as Primary Treatment: Grit Removal gravity pulls larger particles to the bottom and Primary Clarifier solids are separated from water by settling to the bottom of the clarifier; two green pipes leave that structure, one is item 3 - blue caps font Sludge Solids move to the digester as identified by line pointing to green pipeline and the other is item 4 - blue caps font Liquid and Small Solids point to another section of green pipe; from there material move through to two basins 5 - Aeration Basins: Air is circulated and bugs clean and move phosphorus and nitrates, the moving into item 6, Secondary Clarifier-Additional solids are separated from the liquid and piped back to the biosolids digester; from there the material follows the pipeline to item 7: Sand Filtration in a round tank followed by a trip to item 8: a tank for Disinfection with either UV or Chlorine and from there the pure water goes out to natural water source such as a lake. Now moving back to that second pipe routing to item 3; that material moves to item 9, a large round tank identified as a Digester- a bacterial process called digestion is used to reduce the amount of organic matter and the number of disease causing microorganisms; from that tank the material travels to a pipe to item 10, a building with a tank identified for Dewatering, the last bit of water is removed from the biosolids before it is loaded onto trucks where it will seek its final stop as Biosolids: Nutrient-rich byproducts of waste water treatment, they can be used on hayfields as fertilizer

Why Does Wastewater Cost More On My Water Bill?

Treating wastewater is complex, using sophisticated biological systems, multiple filters, and modern disinfection methods. So why does your sewer part of the monthly bill cost more than water usage? The…

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