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From YouTube: Here/now: Know Your County Wastewater Plant
Description
A segment of AVN's monthly magazine show, "Here/now", "Know Your..." provides a behind the scenes look at how our county government actually works. In this episode, we take a trip to the county Wastewater Pollution Control Plant.
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Water
is
wastewater,
generated
in
Arlington
County,
six
major
processes.
The
first
is
preliminary
treatment.
The
preliminary
treatment
building
accepts
the
wastewater
from
14
different
pump
stations
in
the
county.
We've
screen
it,
we
remove
grit
and
then
the
next
major
process
is
primary
treatment.
Primary
treatment
we're
going
to
take
advantage
of
the
physical
characteristics
of
the
wastewater.
It
will
slow
the
flow
down
enough
so
that
things
that
are
heavier
than
water
will
settle
to
the
bottom
of
the
tank.
Things
that
are
lighter
than
water
will
flow
through
the
surface
of
the
tank.
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Part
of
a
extensive
and
and
new
odor
control
system,
the
solids
that
are
generated
on
this
side
of
the
plant
can
tend
to
be
a
little
older
s
and
noxious.
So
the
fumes
from
the
effluent
channel
of
the
primary
tanks
are
captured
and
sent
through
a
scrubber
system
where
we
had
some
chemicals
to
strip
the
odors
and
what's
discharged
is,
is
odor
free.
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now
we're
approaching
our
flow
equalization
system.
We
have
a
series
of
eight
pumps
here:
each
capable
of
pumping
six
million
gallons
a
day
into
our
equalization
storage
tanks,
brand-new
tanks,
part
of
the
major
upgrade
here
they're
designed
to
handle
wet
weather
flows.
Primarily
when
it
rains
we
can
get
up
to
150
million
gallons
into
the
plant.
It
allows
us
to
trim
these
wet
weather
flows
so
that
we
don't
send
any
partially
treated
wastewater
into
the
receiving
stream.
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David
we're
actually
bringing
a
couple
of
new
aeration
tanks
online.
This
is
the
next
step
in
the
treatment
process
called
activated
sludge
we're
letting
the
bacterial
population
remove
the
organic
material.
That's
remaining
in
the
wastewater.
The
primary
effluent
from
the
north
side
of
the
plant
acts
as
a
food
source
for
the
bacteria.
The
bacteria
generally
like
to
have
oxygen
to
breathe.
Much
as
we
do,
we
provide
air
through
diffusers
very
similar
to
what
you'd
see
in
an
aquarium.
So.
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This
is
our
plan,
all
fall
David.
What
started
out
as
30
million
gallons
of
raw
wastewater
is
now
30
million
gallons
of
super
clean
water
and
it's
being
discharged
into
four
mile
run.
Everything
we've
seen
every
physical,
chemical
and
biological
means
that
our
disposal
was
done
to
make
this
water
as
clean
as
possible.