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Stagnant water odour issues
Dec 13^th, 2011, 1:28am

Hi there,

We have an amount of stagnant water in our plant, pH 9.5 lots of algae growth and decomposing activated sludge on the bottom.
Last summer we experienced odour problems from it.

I recently had a technician from a lime supplier come out and they said dosing lime would not prevent odour issues in summer because our pH is already at 9.5

Has anyone else used other chemicals to prevent odour? we can experience temps over 40deg C in summer which start to decompose what evers in the water.

Last summer we filled the tank and used large surface aerators to aerate that water. We want to avoid that this summer to keep our electricity costs down.

Any thoughts? Any questions about the plant you need to know please just let me know

cheers
Smiley

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Muhammad Afzal Khan

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Re: Stagnant water odour issues
Reply #1 - Dec 13^th, 2011, 7:00am

Dear sludge man

I would say keep the aerators is the best possible way to keep your water reserve fresh. I don't know if there is any chemical treatment for smell issues in stagnant water. If you find one then it surely would have some sort of side effects. above all how our bugs busy in decomposing the waste will survive with out air/ oxygen???

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PNWconsult

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Re: Stagnant water odour issues
Reply #2 - Dec 13^th, 2011, 12:58pm

Hi Sludge man,

You should consider a light duty cover and a small bottom laid aeration combination, which, when properly sized, will be very cheap to run.
How big of a surface area do you have?
Here is a cover you might want to check into (used very successfully before for Algae elimination): Hexa Tile cover. http://www.awtti.com/hexa_tiles_cover.php
It's affordable and very effective, and will work in any lagoon/tank.

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sludge_man

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Re: Stagnant water odour issues
Reply #3 - Dec 13^th, 2011, 6:37pm

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion, we were looking for something with no capitial cost as this piece of equipment is redundant (spare tank). We maintain a small level of water in there to keep pressure on the base of the vessel to prevent tree roots cracking the base.
dimensions are 76.8mx26mx7m
so approx 10,000kL vessel
if there was some sort of chemical? we could just pour in for summer that would be great.
cheers
Smiley

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Jeff Naumann God Member Offline I love Water and Wastewater.com Posts: 1133 Torrance, California Gender: Company or Organization: Jeff Naumann & Associates	Re: Stagnant water odour issues Reply #4 - Dec 13^th, 2011, 6:50pm You might consider "high test hypochlorite" (HTH) tablets, or other form of chlorine. These are commonly used in swimming pools. It the tank concrete?
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sludge_man YaBB Newbies Offline I love Water and Wastewater.com Posts: 10 Company or Organization: Lion	Re: Stagnant water odour issues Reply #5 - Dec 13^th, 2011, 6:52pm Hi, Thanks for the suggestion, yes the tank is concrete. Is concrete suitable for this application? cheers
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Jeff Naumann God Member Offline I love Water and Wastewater.com Posts: 1133 Torrance, California Gender: Company or Organization: Jeff Naumann & Associates	Re: Stagnant water odour issues Reply #6 - Dec 13^th, 2011, 7:07pm I think that it should work fine. http://www.easypools.com.au/pool-maintenance/157-pitting-of-concrete-surfaces
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The sludge judge God Member Offline Posts: 649 Wisconsin Gender: Company or Organization: private	Re: Stagnant water odour issues Reply #7 - Dec 13^th, 2011, 9:30pm I must say I'm very puzzled by this post. Why is there decomposing sludge at the bottom of one of your tanks. What is the purpose of this tank? Why would you want to have the pH at 9.5? best regards, Ryan Hopefully if you supply some more information better help can be offered.
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Jeff Naumann God Member Offline I love Water and Wastewater.com Posts: 1133 Torrance, California Gender: Company or Organization: Jeff Naumann & Associates	Re: Stagnant water odour issues Reply #8 - Dec 13^th, 2011, 9:42pm I seem to have missed the part about "decomposing activated sludge" in the tank. If that's actually the case, the chlorine would probably not be able to do the job. I assumed that the tank contained a water akin to treated effluent, with little solids.
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sludge_man

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Re: Stagnant water odour issues
Reply #9 - Dec 13^th, 2011, 10:14pm

hi,

Decdomposing sludge is left over from previous use of this tank an aeration basin. Tank is now out of operation, but with small volume of water in base to keep pressure on it to prevent base from cracking.

We want to avoid aeration as we only have 3x 120kW surface aerators with out VSD's which consume lots of power.
pH is at 9.5 because thats what it naturally is, nothing has been done alter the pH at this stage.

thanks everyone for their help and taking the time to read through

cheers
Smiley

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AZS

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Re: Stagnant water odour issues
Reply #10 - Dec 13^th, 2011, 10:38pm

Hi ,

I recently had a technician from a lime supplier come out and they said dosing lime would not prevent odour issues in summer because our pH is already at 9.5

Lime dosing will be helpful only for primary sludge ( Sludge pits/sump with stagnant sludge ) with considerable levels of sulfide in it . I have measured the odor levels by increasing the PH starting from 7 to 12 and we found encouraging results at PH 11.

It was the part of our odor control measures inside the treatment plant by availing the existing facilities to avoid a large capital investment.

regards ,

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Nadeem.A YaBB Newbies Offline I love Water and Wastewater.com Posts: 30 Gender: Company or Organization: Dubai Municipality	Re: Stagnant water odour issues Reply #11 - Dec 14^th, 2011, 3:22am It appears that the problem is "Algae" & "Odors" from decomposing sludge". When you want to avoid capital investment then Algae problem can be solved by replacing the water frequently. For odors from decomposing left over sludge, isn't it posible to have the tank cleaned thoroughly and to get rid of the root cause?
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Tom Keenan - nesa God Member Offline Environmental Consultant - contact info@nesa.ie Posts: 2103 Gender: Company or Organization: nesa environmental consultants	Re: Stagnant water odour issues Reply #12 - Dec 14^th, 2011, 4:57am I suggest that you clean the tank and use clean water to provide the weight. Occasional changes of this water would mininise the risk of "stagnant water' odors developing. Some residual chlorine could be added to the clean water to prolong the period between water changes in the tank to maybe once or twice per year.
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KyleAdam YaBB Newbies Offline I love Water and Wastewater.com Posts: 5 Company or Organization: http://www.soldertools.net/	Re: Stagnant water odour issues Reply #13 - Dec 19^th, 2011, 6:42am While if the user desires to enjoy the advantages of high-speed connectivity for the smooth data transfer solutions then there is power-packed connectivity section to support that.
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alexisrois

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Re: Stagnant water odour issues
Reply #14 - Apr 25^th, 2012, 12:39am

Odor in stagnant water kept outside occurs because of algae growth & decomposition. Algae is the photosynthetic organism that indicates it needs sunlight to grow & recreate. Decreasing algae in your water & thereby reducing odor in stagnant water, indicates adding a chemical that will destroy the algae or storing it in the shade to avoid algae blooms.

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DrHenry

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Re: Stagnant water odour issues
Reply #15 - Apr 25^th, 2012, 2:53pm

Pump it out, clean it, and cycle clean water through the tank. Adding chemicals is really adding perfume. You don't get rid of the smell (except with aeration) and when the smell is foul perfume, you will find you have bigger problems. In the cases I have seen, the cost of the perfume is pretty high for it to work properly. Cleaning that tank solves the problem long term.

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Dante625 YaBB Newbies Offline I love Water and Wastewater.com Posts: 5 Company or Organization: dfdf	Re: Stagnant water odour issues Reply #16 - May 1^st, 2012, 12:00am I must say I'm very puzzled by this post. Why is there decomposing sludge at the bottom of one of your tanks.....
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Re: Stagnant water odour issues
Reply #17 - May 2^nd, 2012, 7:30am

Hi,

If you use hypo you will end up with chlorine gas given off (part of mustard gas). The safer alternative is peroxide, but this is still nasty stuff and will cost a small fortune as you will need to dose fairly regularly.
I think you might be able to add nitrate (probably sodium) to help make it slightly less smelly and this might be the cheapest option, but again still fairly expensive and time consuming.

Have you weighed up the balance of chemicals / time messing about and the electricity?

I think there are formulations you can buy for setptic tanks and pits to stop them smelling too. I think Brenntag do one, but I don't know if that helps you? I'm in UK.

Personally I would make a waterproof cover, pump it out, and fill it in with cheap soil or sand to keep the weight up, although I would think if it's going to crack it will crack. Think of the weight of a house and they still crack from tree roots! Also, cut down the tree, very cheap!

Regards,
argfin

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