The Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) is a public agency in the state of California that provides wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal services for approximately 2.6 million people in central and northwest Orange County. OCSD is a special district that is governed by a board of directors consisting of 25 board members appointed from 20 cities, two sanitary districts, two water districts and one representative from the Orange County Board of Supervisors. OCSD has two operating facilities that treat wastewater from residential, commercial and industrial sources. It is the third largest wastewater treatment facility west of the Mississippi River. OCSD and the Orange County Water District were awarded the Stockholm Industry Water Award in 2008 for pioneering work to develop with Trojan Technologies (Canada) the Groundwater Replenishment System, the world’s largest water purification plant for groundwater recharge. [1] [2] Orange County Sanitation District is commonly referred to as OCSD, though not to be confused with Orange County Sheriff's Department that shares the same acronym. [3]
In 1954, the County Sanitation District of Orange County began operating and took over the duties of the Orange County Joint Outfall Sewer (JOS), which was the sewage outfall system that extended into the Pacific Ocean. The name was changed from County Sanitation District of Orange County to Orange County Sanitation District or OCSD in 1998. In 2020, their corporate identity was changed from OCSD to OC SAN.
At Plant No. 2 there are several facilities that operate to treat wastewater and dispose of solids.
Wastewater enters into Plant No. 2 via five trunklines: Miller-Holder, Bushard, Coast, Districts 5 and 6, and Interplant. The District 5 and 6 trunkline connects to the Coast trunkline at a vortex structure within the plant. Once inside Plant No. 2, the flow is measured.
The trunklines connect into a common discharge channel located at the Headworks D facility. The wastewater flows through up to six bar screens, which scrape out large material, like rags and sanitary products, and drop the material into two sluiceways that transport the screening into respective washer compactors. The washer compactors help remove organics, which are odor causing and take up space in hauling bins. The washed screenings are then transported via screw conveyors to a large bin. Once full, the bin is transported to an offsite facility for disposal. Once through the barscreens, up to 7 main sewage pumps (commonly referred to as a MSP) located at the Headworks D pump the wastewater into up to six grit basins. The grit basins help settle out grit, which can damage equipment inject air through diffusers into the wastewater to freshen the water to decrease septicity and to help settle out grit material. Grit material consisting of inorganics, like eggshells, corn, and sand and dirt, is removed from wastewater to prevent damage to pumps and disruption of other processes like sludge digestion by consuming unnecessary space. The grit is dewatered in up to two grit classifiers before it is dropped into a hauling bin. Like the screenings, the grit is transported to an offsite facility for disposal. From the grit basins, the wastewater flows into three splitter boxes where ferric chloride (FeCl3) is injected into the wastewater to increase sludge settling in the primary clarifiers. Bleach (NaOCL) may also be added into A, B, and/or C splitter boxes to work to assist in sludge settling. The splitter boxes are used to control the amount of flow, measured in millions of gallons per day (MGD), that flows into the three distribution boxes, which further separate wastewater for treatment in primary clarifiers.
Wastewater flows from the Headworks facility into three distribution boxes. The wastewater flows from each distribution box into designated primary clarifiers. The distribution of the wastewater is as follows: "A" distribution box dispenses water to D, E, F, and G primary clarifiers, "B" distribution box dispenses water to H, I, J, K, and L primary clarifiers, and "C" distribution box dispenses water to M, N, O, P, and Q primary clarifiers. The sludge that settles out to the bottom of the clarifiers and the scum that is removed from the top of the clarifiers is then pumped to one of two sludge blending facility tanks, where it is mixed before being pumped to anaerobic digesters.
A septic tank is an underground chamber made of concrete, fiberglass, or plastic through which domestic wastewater (sewage) flows for basic sewage treatment. Settling and anaerobic digestion processes reduce solids and organics, but the treatment efficiency is only moderate. Septic tank systems are a type of simple onsite sewage facility. They can be used in areas that are not connected to a sewerage system, such as rural areas. The treated liquid effluent is commonly disposed in a septic drain field, which provides further treatment. Nonetheless, groundwater pollution may occur and is a problem.
Wastewater treatment is a process which removes and eliminates contaminants from wastewater and converts this into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environment or is reused for various purposes. The treatment process takes place in a wastewater treatment plant. There are several kinds of wastewater which are treated at the appropriate type of wastewater treatment plant. For domestic wastewater, the treatment plant is called a Sewage Treatment. For industrial wastewater, treatment either takes place in a separate Industrial wastewater treatment, or in a sewage treatment plant. Further types of wastewater treatment plants include Agricultural wastewater treatment and leachate treatment plants.
The activated sludgeprocess is a type of biological wastewater treatment process for treating sewage or industrial wastewaters using aeration and a biological floc composed of bacteria and protozoa. It uses air and microorganisms to biologically oxidize organic pollutants, producing a waste sludge containing the oxidized material.
The Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant is a sewage treatment plant in southwest Los Angeles, California, next to Dockweiler State Beach on Santa Monica Bay. The plant is the largest sewage treatment facility in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and one of the largest plants in the world. Hyperion is operated by the City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works, and the Bureau of Sanitation. Hyperion is the largest sewage plant by volume west of the Mississippi River.
Secondary treatment is the removal of biodegradable organic matter from sewage or similar kinds of wastewater. The aim is to achieve a certain degree of effluent quality in a sewage treatment plant suitable for the intended disposal or reuse option. A "primary treatment" step often precedes secondary treatment, whereby physical phase separation is used to remove settleable solids. During secondary treatment, biological processes are used to remove dissolved and suspended organic matter measured as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). These processes are performed by microorganisms in a managed aerobic or anaerobic process depending on the treatment technology. Bacteria and protozoa consume biodegradable soluble organic contaminants while reproducing to form cells of biological solids. Secondary treatment is widely used in sewage treatment and is also applicable to many agricultural and industrial wastewaters.
Sequencing batch reactors (SBR) or sequential batch reactors are a type of activated sludge process for the treatment of wastewater. SBRs treat wastewater such as sewage or output from anaerobic digesters or mechanical biological treatment facilities in batches. Oxygen is bubbled through the mixture of wastewater and activated sludge to reduce the organic matter. The treated effluent may be suitable for discharge to surface waters or possibly for use on land.
A lamella clarifier or inclined plate settler (IPS) is a type of clarifier designed to remove particulates from liquids.
Sewage treatment is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable to discharge to the surrounding environment or an intended reuse application, thereby preventing water pollution from raw sewage discharges. Sewage contains wastewater from households and businesses and possibly pre-treated industrial wastewater. There are a high number of sewage treatment processes to choose from. These can range from decentralized systems to large centralized systems involving a network of pipes and pump stations which convey the sewage to a treatment plant. For cities that have a combined sewer, the sewers will also carry urban runoff (stormwater) to the sewage treatment plant. Sewage treatment often involves two main stages, called primary and secondary treatment, while advanced treatment also incorporates a tertiary treatment stage with polishing processes and nutrient removal. Secondary treatment can reduce organic matter from sewage, using aerobic or anaerobic biological processes. A so-called quarternary treatment step can also be added for the removal of organic micropollutants, such as pharmaceuticals. This has been implemented in full-scale for example in Sweden.
Clarifiers are settling tanks built with mechanical means for continuous removal of solids being deposited by sedimentation. A clarifier is generally used to remove solid particulates or suspended solids from liquid for clarification and/or thickening. Inside the clarifier, solid contaminants will settle down to the bottom of the tank where it is collected by a scraper mechanism. Concentrated impurities, discharged from the bottom of the tank, are known as sludge, while the particles that float to the surface of the liquid are called scum.
Sewage is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residences and from commercial, institutional and public facilities that exist in the locality. Sub-types of sewage are greywater and blackwater. Sewage also contains soaps and detergents. Food waste may be present from dishwashing, and food quantities may be increased where garbage disposal units are used. In regions where toilet paper is used rather than bidets, that paper is also added to the sewage. Sewage contains macro-pollutants and micro-pollutants, and may also incorporate some municipal solid waste and pollutants from industrial wastewater.
Extended aeration is a method of sewage treatment using modified activated sludge procedures. It is preferred for relatively small waste loads, where lower operating efficiency is offset by mechanical simplicity.
Effluent sewer systems, also called septic tank effluent gravity (STEG), solids-free sewer (SFS), or septic tank effluent drainage (STED) systems, have septic tanks that collect sewage from residences and businesses, and the liquid fraction of sewage that comes out of the tank is conveyed to a downstream receiving body such as either a centralized sewage treatment plant or a distributed treatment system for further treatment or disposal away from the community generating the sewage. Most of the solids are removed by the interceptor tanks, so the treatment plant can be much smaller than a typical plant and any pumping for the supernatant can be simpler without grinders.
Beckton Sewage Treatment Works, formerly known as Barking Sewage Works, is a large sewage treatment plant in Beckton in the east London Borough of Newham, operated by Thames Water.
Mogden Sewage Treatment Works is a sewage treatment plant in the Ivybridge section of Isleworth, West London, formerly known as Mogden. Built in 1931–36 by Middlesex County Council and now operated by Thames Water, it is the third largest sewage works in the United Kingdom. It treats the waste water from about 1.9 million people served by three main sewers serving more than the northwest quarter of Outer London and two further main sewers from the south and south-west. The plant has been extended and is constantly being upgraded with new process, most recently in OfWat Amp6 by the Costain Atkins Joint venture who delivered 6MW of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) generation, New process air blowers for Batteries A & B and six gravity sludge thickening streams. The site covers 55 hectares.
The Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant is a primary waste water treatment facility located on the Point Loma Peninsula in San Diego, California. It is a notable facility due to its ability to treat 1 gallon of waste water for 1/3000th of a penny. The process used to treat the waste water has been perfected to treat a large amount of water as inexpensive as possible. This waste water facility is also noted for its high percentage of removal of pollutants while also remaining a primary treatment facility. The solid removal rate is between 88–90% while the BOD removal rate is kept at 60%. This unique process involves adding Hydrogen Peroxide in order to retrieve and recycle the iron salts that are used in treatment, thus enabling major cost savings.
The Orange County Water District is a special district that manages the groundwater basin beneath central and northern Orange County, California. The groundwater basin provides a water supply to 19 municipal water agencies and special districts that serve 2.5 million Orange County residents. The Orange County Water District's service area covers approximately 350 square miles (910 km2) and the District owns approximately 1,600 acres (650 ha) in and near the Santa Ana River, which it uses to capture water flows for groundwater recharge. Additionally, the Orange County Water District owns approximately 2,150 acres (870 ha) of land above the Prado Dam in the Prado Reservoir and uses that land for water conservation, water storage and water quality improvements. The water district's administrative offices and the Groundwater Replenishment System facilities are located in Fountain Valley, while it also operates various groundwater recharge facilities located in Anaheim and Orange.
Fecal sludge management (FSM) is the storage, collection, transport, treatment and safe end use or disposal of fecal sludge. Together, the collection, transport, treatment and end use of fecal sludge constitute the "value chain" or "service chain" of fecal sludge management. Fecal sludge is defined very broadly as what accumulates in onsite sanitation systems and specifically is not transported through a sewer. It is composed of human excreta, but also anything else that may go into an onsite containment technology, such as flushwater, cleansing materials, menstrual hygiene products, grey water, and solid waste. Fecal sludge that is removed from septic tanks is called septage.
Water reuse in California is the use of reclaimed water for beneficial use. As a heavily populated state in the drought-prone arid west, water reuse is developing as an integral part of water in California enabling both the economy and population to grow.
The Thomas P. Smith Water Reclamation Facility (TPSWRF) is owned and operated by the city of Tallahassee, Florida. The facility provides sewage treatment services for Tallahassee, Florida and the surrounding areas.
Decentralized wastewater systems convey, treat and dispose or reuse wastewater from small and low-density communities, buildings and dwellings in remote areas, individual public or private properties. Wastewater flow is generated when appropriate water supply is available within the buildings or close to them.
33°41′33″N117°56′23″W / 33.69243115576001°N 117.939745447467°W