The IIE National Capital Chapter will tour the DC Water and Sewer Authority's Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant located in the SW section of the District of Columbia on Friday Dec. 3 from 2 PM to 4 PM. Advance reservations are required by Monday, Nov. 29 by 1 PM to participate in this tour. The tour is limited to the first 15 IIE members who reply by the deadline. RSVP to Joe Scheibeler at 202-268-5089. Location and directions will be given to those who phone for reservations and provide their name and phone number. Due to plant security requirements, non-US Citizens need to RSVP as soon as possible and provide their VISA numbers or Passport ID's and sponsor information.

DC Water's Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant
The Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWTP) is the largest advanced wastewater treatment facility of its type in the world with a rated annual average day capacity of 370 million gallons per day and a peak wet weather capacity of 1.076 billion gallons per day. While other metropolitan areas have facilities with larger capacities, none of these provide the high level of treatment that Blue Plains does with its nitrification/denitrification and filtration process. Consistent with the high level of treatment provided, the plant's NPDES permit contains the most stringent effluent discharge requirements of any plant of its size. The existing wastewater treatment processes at the Blue Plains AWTP consists of preliminary and primary treatment, secondary treatment, nitrification/denitrification, effluent filtration, chlorination/dechlorination and post aeration.. This plant covers all aspects of what is done to make the water safe for the environment again. The tour will leave you with an understanding of the basic processes at the Blue Plains AWTP. The tour shows all aspects of the Wastewater Treatment Process from the time the water enters the plant, to the removal of biosolids, to the eventual discharge of the water.

Wastewater is collected by the District of Columbia sewer system and from the Maryland and Virginia suburbs and is delivered to the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. The solids treatment processes at Blue Plains are composed of thickening and dewatering processes for primary sludge, secondary waste activated sludge (WAS), and nitrification/denitrification waste activated sludge. These processes include screen and degritting processes, gravity thickeners, dissolved air flotation thickeners, sludge blending centrifuge dewatering. Until December 2000, a portion of the primary sludge and all the nitrification/denitrification waste activated sludge was anaerobically digested. The existing digesters have been taken and will be demolished. Presently, all sludge is lime stabilized.

You can take a virtual tour on line athttp://www.dcwater.com/about/model_flash.cfm

DC WASA - Blue Plains AWTP Biosolids Management Program Washington, DC.