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Kent
County Wastewater Treatment Plant
 The
Kent
County Wastewater Treatment Plant is continuously improving,
taking advantage of new technologies to meet increasingly stringent
operating permit standards. Although permitted to discharge up to
15 million gallons per day (mgd), the plant presently discharges
about 11 mgd of treated wastewater. The County's permit is up for
renewal in 2005, and officials would like to increase capacity,
applying for increased flows to meet the requirements of an increasing
population in the plant's service area.
Based
on its monitoring of the plant's effluent, DNREC found that 683
pounds of nitrogen and 262 pounds of phosphorous are discharged
into the Murderkill River daily. To meet the EPA approved TMDL,
the plant must reduce its nitrogen load by 59% and its phosphorous
load by 93%.
As one of its early wastewater treatment
improvements, Kent County hired K-F
Environmental Technologies, a private firm that uses a patented
method to heat sludge biosolids to more than 100 degrees Celsius.
The process dries the biosolids and removes pathogens. The remaining
product meets the EPA and Delaware "exceptional quality"
standard for Class "A"
biosolids, and is called Kentorganite. Kentorganite is used
as a liming agent (which makes the nutrients more available to the
plants) and is applied to more than 5,000 acres of farmland in the
state. Application is carried out according to each farm's individual
soil analysis, ensuring that only the precise amount necessary is
used.
With its history of keeping pace with current
treatment technologies, Kent County is well on its way to meeting
its new permit requirements. Please feel free to visit the Kent
County Wastewater Treatment Plant Master Plan online for more
information.
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