Download Plant System Description - City of Zanesville, Ohio

Plant and System Description
As a means of directing sewage to the wastewater treatment facilities, the collection
system originally began construction in 1955. The collection system has been designed
and built to include homes, businesses, and industries within the City limits, and
eventually expanded to collect wastes from outside the City limits as well. This is
accomplished with sewer pipes ranging in size from 6 to 60 inches in diameter. Any
wastewater entering from the County is metered as it enters City limits. Wastewater is
normally conveyed by gravity to the treatment facility, with the exception of four
pumping stations located within the system to lift the sewage from low lying areas. Over
300 homes on the City’s East End collection system also contain individual grinder
pumps, maintained by the Wastewater Division, to aid in pumping due to the unusual
geographical site conditions.
Portions of the collection system are a combination of sanitary and wet weather flows.
Sanitary is the portion of wastewater that contains the wastes discharged from homes,
businesses, and industries. Wet weather flows are the increased flow rates normally
seen during rain events that are a result of water flowing into the collection system
through street catch basins, downspouts, and cracks or damage in the collection system
piping. The City currently is undergoing a continuing program that identifies and
separates known storm water catch basins to reduce the effects of wet weather flows.
The Zanesville Wastewater Treatment Plant was originally built in 1959 as a Primary
Treatment Plant that included primary treatment and sludge digestion. Since then, the
plant has undergone several expansions, with the last construction project concluding in
2009. The plant is currently an Advanced Secondary Treatment facility rated for 11
Million Gallons per Day (MGD). Processes include screening, grit removal, primary
clarification, trickling filtration, aeration biological treatment, disinfection (chlorination)
with dechlorination (sodium bisulfite), primary and secondary anaerobic digestion, and
belt filter press dewatering. The plant is operated under the limits provided by the
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit number 0PE0000 with
the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA). The final treated water is
discharged into the Muskingum River.
Waste (biosolids) that are removed from wastewater and dewatered for ultimate
disposal. The plant transports the biosolids to a secondary facility for further digestion,
placing the ultimate disposal requirements on the receiving facility.