Processes
Nitrogen Removal
The Great Bend Facility has a Carrousel denitIR Process for biological nitrogen removal. This process is capable of accomplishing complete nitrification and a high degree of denitrification. This is a two-part process consisting of anoxic basins and Carrousel basins. The Carrousel basin is capable of oxidizing the influent ammonia to less than 1.0 mg/l. The anoxic basin is designed to achieve efficient denitrification and to allow the plant to produce an effluent total nitrogen (TN) concentration of less than 10 mg/l.
Activated Sludge Process
The Great Bend Plant is an activated sludge process in which living organisms are supplied with oxygen and mixed with the wastewater in large aeration tanks. The living organisms use the organic material in the wastewater as a food source, thus removing it and purifying the wastewater.
Ultraviolet Light Exposure
Following the activated sludge process, the treated wastewater (effluent) is exposed to ultraviolet light in order to disinfect it before it enters the river. The treatment is accomplished through a series of physical and biological processes.
The physical process is one in which inorganic waste debris such as sand, salt, iron, calcium, and other mineral materials are removed and dewatered from the wastewater and disposed of at the County Landfill.
Whereas organic wastes are chemical substances of an animal or plant origin in the biological processes, which are settled out in the primary clarifiers as sludge, thickened then heated in the anaerobic digesters as biosolids. The biosolids are then hauled to farmland and applied for beneficial agricultural use.