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Water and Wastewater Plant Directory
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North Billerica, MA, US
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Billerica Wastewater Treatment Facility
70 Letchworth Ave.
North Billerica, MA, 01862
US
Contact Information:
Contact: Billerica WWTP
Email:
bilwwtp@aol.com
Telephone: 1-978-671-0956
Fax:
Plant Operation: Municipal
Processing: Water & Wastewater
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Web site:
http://www.mwpca.org/billerica.htm
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Plant/Process Description:
Construction of the first public system of
sanitary sewers and of the treatment plant began
in 1966 and was designed to be expandable to meet
the growth of the Town of Billerica's population,
which was estimated to be 50,000 by the year
2000.
The original Wastewater Treatment Facility was
designed to treat .8MGD (million gallons per
day), by using aeration tanks and final settling
tanks followed by chlorination before discharge
into the Concord River. In 1975 the first upgrade
took place which, doubled the aeration tank
capacity, added an additional final settling tank
and added a sludge disposal building which housed
a coil vacuum filter for sludge thickening. This
upgrade brought the plant capacity to 1.6 MGD.
In 1982, a return sludge building was added to
house the sludge return pumps which had been
externally mounted on the final settling tanks.
In 1984, the Town of Billerica's landfill was
closed which was where the thickened sludge was
disposed of. We began hauling liquid sludge by
tanker truck to Greater Lawrence and then to
Upper Blackstone Abatement Facility.
In 1988, construction began on the next expansion
which would bring the Wastewater Treatment
Facility to it=s present size of 5.5 MGD.
The new facilities include: preliminary treatment
(mechanically cleaned bar screens, grit removal
equipment); primary treatment (3-60' diameter
primary settling tanks, primary sludge pumps,
primary scum pumps, primary sludge holding tank);
replacement of the mechanical aerators in the
aeration tanks with a diffused aeration system; 3-
60' diameter final settling tanks; 3 recirculated
sludge pumps; secondary scum pump; new
chlorination equipment; post-aeration facilities;
plant water system improvements; blended sludge
holding tank; sludge transfer pumps; new
dissolved air flotation thickener; 2-2 meter belt
filter presses; associated polymer storage,
transfer and conditioning equipment; sludge
conveyors; composting facility and storage areas
and a new Administration and Maintenance
Building, which houses the Plant Superintendent's
office, control room, laboratory, personnel
facilities, aeration blowers, maintenance shop,
garage and emergency generator.
Wastewater Treatment Plant Data
Plant type - Grade 7 secondary Treatment with
full composting abilities.
Flow - Average daily flow is 3.1 MGD,
(includes .40 MGD industrial flow)
Designed for 5.5 MGD
Plant Lab Results
Average BOD5 - In 146, Out 7 Average 95% Removal
Average Suspended Solids - In 161, Out 10 Average
94% Removal
Collection System - 19 pump Stations with 172
miles of sewers. Additional miles of sewer added
yearly.
Population Served - 65% of the Town population is
sewered.
Town Population - 38,000 residents (24,700
residents served)
Plant Equipment
Mechanical Bar Screen - grit removal - 3 primary
clarifiers - diffused air aeration tanks - 6
final clarifiers - chlorine tank - post aeration
tank - 3 sludge housing tanks - 2 diffused air
flotation thickeners - 2-2 meter belt filter
presses - 12 - 200 cubic yard bins - 24,000
square feet uncovered compost storage area.
Plant Staff And Licenses
Plant Superintendent- (Gr. 7), Grade V Operator-
(Gr. 7), Maintenance Supervisor-( Gr. 4.), Lab
Technician- (Gr.7), 7 Licensed Operators (1-Gr.
7, 1-Gr.6, 5-Gr.4), 9 Maintenance Men (1- Gr. 7,
1-Gr 4, 2-Gr. 1), Principal Clerk
21 Personnel total, operation is 365 days per
year, 24 hour per day , 7 days a week.
Preliminary Treatment
Mechanically-Cleaned Bar Screens - remove
floating and/or large objects that could either
clog or damage downstream equipment.
Grit Removal Chambers - remove sands, gravel and
other heavier inorganic solids from the
wastewater flow into the plant.
Parshall Flumes - measure the wastewater flow
into the plant.
Primary Treatment
Primary Settling Tanks - remove virtually all
settable solids and approximately 60 percent of
the suspended solids, grease and oil. The settled
solids are pumped to the primary sludge holding
tank and the floatables flow by gravity to the
primary scum well and are then pumped to the scum
concentrator.
Secondary Treatment
Aeration Tanks - Organic pollutants are removed
by micro-organisms cultivated under aerobic
conditions. Oxygen to support the biomass is
supplied by a fine bubble diffused aeration
system.
Final Settling Tanks - Receive the aeration tank
discharge (mixed liquor) containing the biomass
and separate the solids from the liquid. An
appropriate amount of the settled activated
sludge is pumped back to the aeration tanks and
the excess is wasted and pumped to the sludge
handling facilities for thickening.
Disinfection
Chlorination - treated wastewater flows through
one or two detention channels after being mixed
with a solution of chlorinated water to achieve
disinfection of final effluent by reducing
pathogenic bacteria and viruses to safe levels.
Post-Aeration
Post-Aeration Tanks - the dissolved oxygen
content of the treated wastewater is increased by
the addition of air supplied by a fine bubble
diffused aeration system.
Sludge Thickening
Dissolved Air Flotation thickeners - receive
waste activated sludge (WAS) directly from the
biological treatment system and thicken the
sludge from about 0.5 percent solids to about 4
percent solids; thickened sludge then flows by
gravity to the WAS storage well.
Sludge Dewatering
Belt Filter Presses - thickened WAS and primary
sludges are blended, polymer conditioned and
dewatered to about 25 percent solids.
Composting started in Billerica in August of 1990
after the plant upgrade had been finished. In
March of 1992, odor problems and complaints had
closed down the composting operation. Liquid
Sludge had to be hauled (at $.03 cents a gallon)
to Upper Blackstone WWTF which had to be treated
and incinerated (at $250.00 per dry ton) All of
these additional costs added up to $175,000.00
for the year. In addition to all of this, the
surrounding neighborhoods had formed an Odor
Control Committee and were very vocal at Town
Meetings. They were able to generate local
newspaper interest in their story and this caused
the shutdown of the composting operation.
In the fall of 1992, the Town of Billerica
Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) started
experimenting with woodash as a bulking agent
instead of wood chips (which has been used in the
original start-up). With cooperation of the Odor
Control Committee, the WWTF started composting at
50% capacity to show the plant could eliminate
odors with a change in the bulking agent.
By February of 1993, odor control had been
successful and the WWTF started composting at
100% capacity. The WWTF had generated between
6,000 and 8,000 cubic yards of Type I Compost per
year since 1993, due to the inception and use of
woodash and sawdust as a bulking agent.
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Owner:
Town of Billerica, Massachusetts
Web site:
http://www.town.billerica.ma.us/
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Operating Company:
Web site:
http://
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Directions:
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Disclaimer:
Water and Wastewater.com provides the information on
this page for reference purposes only. We do not certify
the accuracy of the information provided by third-party
individuals for this listing.
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