Wastewater management is key to maintaining the health and well-being of community members and the environment. by Matthew Petillo, photos by Steven Hertzog
Wastewater may be the water system you don’t want to talk about, but wastewater is no joke. With America’s propensity for running water and flushable toilets, wastewater is a key infrastructure priority for cities and municipalities large and small, as well as for the individual homeowner outside the system using a septic tank. Wastewater departments are tasked with safely moving, treating and disposing of whatever goes down the drain or toilet. Jay Lovett, manager for Wastewater Treatment Services for the City of Lawrence, manages two watertreatment plants, 35 sewer pump stations and four stormwater stations, and is also responsible for the personnel needed to run the facilities. 34
“The first thing that I’m responsible for is the crew of people that operate these plants. I have about 14 staff that operate these facilities 24/7, and I manage their efforts,” Lovett says. “I [also] oversee the treatment processes. These plants are designed to treat wastewater in a very specific way, and that process has to be supervised.” The wastewater treatment process is an involved and somewhat fascinating process with several steps to getting the water to a level it can be returned to the environment and the solids to fertilizer grade or sent to a landfill. These include filtering the wastewater and separating liquids and solids into two separate trains or treatment channels. The water train consists of several settling basins to remove more and more solids that are sent to the solids treatment, removing nutrients that cause harm downstream to wildlife,
