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Sewer plant tour highlights problems

Members of Manchester Water and Sewer Commission, along with two aldermen, toured the city wastewater treatment plant to explore the estimated $2 million in repairs plant operators said are needed in the near future.

Water Department officials told the group that many of their purchase orders for repairs have fallen on deaf ears at city hall.

“There have been a lot of people who have said no,” Director of Water and Sewer Jeffery Perry said. “Other repairs, like the department’s first priority, a broken screw in the plant headworks (used to filter debris from the system) has been a chronic problem for years.”

The city’s roughly 2.5 million gallons of sewage flows into the headworks where that flow is supposed to be split into two directions for filtration.

The broken screw, one that mirrors its counterpart on the right side has been shipped with the wrong threading.

Vice Mayor Mark Messick suggested to Perry that he get with the City Attorney Craig Johnson, have a resolution written to come before the board requesting permission to spend the approximately $30,000-40,000 needed to repair the headworks. That money that is in the water department budget, but those amounts must be approved by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen before they can be allocated.

The second priority involve repairs to the oxidation ditch

“All of the mechanical equipment and blowers are problematic or not even working,” Plant Operator Austin Haithcote said.

The large open tank circles water through two rings that mix bacteria that consumes soil material. In the outer ring, three buoys that mix and aviate the swirling mix are broken.

“We have several mechanical problems here, short-circuiting,” Haithcote said. “Some of this is too large a job for us to do in-house. We don’t have electricians on staff.”

Some of the repairs are waiting on quotes, while others have parts with long lead times, while others have purchase orders submitted, but according to the water department are awaiting approval from BOMA.

Messick said during the tour that only a very few purchase orders have gone before the board. One that address not the plant but the collection system, the West Side Street pumping station replacement was recently approved.

Haithcote said that he has records available in chronological order of the purchase orders he has submitted.

After the June 6 meeting, during which Perry presented a list of needed repairs, Water Commission Chairman Michael Anderson said that he had told the director he wanted the plant to be the topnotch wastewater treatment plant.

“The plant was one of the best in the state, and we’ve let it go to hell,” he said.

Some of the plant has seen parts cut out or removed after the 2010 remodel. The clarifier, the next step from the oxidation ditch that takes flow, allows heavy material to settle. The clear water is moved to the edge of the circle where it is pumped to the disinfection station. Settled material is returned to the ditch.

The arm that pushes the water to the edge is supposed to have a sprayer to keep the equipment clean has had those sprayers removed. Like the cleaner for the headwork screws those non-potable water sprayers have been cut out.

The clarifier arm’s ball bearing is a specialize product made in Europe. The department is working to reacquire the contact for the firm that manufactures.

Water department officials ball parked the overall costs of repairs at about $2 million. About $6 million in grants and COVID relief funds have been earmarked for the collection system repairs.

The list submitted the city includes concerns to the Main Pump Station, the 7-11 Station (Pump #4 needs rebuilt or replaced, High temps are causing pump breakers to trip, station inlet looks like it has collapsed) the Head Works, the Oxidation Ditch and both the North Clarifier and South Clarifier, the Thickener Pump Station, Digester #1 and several concerns in the U.V. Room, the equipment that sanitizes the effluent before release into the Duck River.

Mayor: ‘City must follow purchase polices