There will always be times when large bodies of water get contaminated due to natural or man-made disasters, broken pipes, deliberate tampering etc. In such cases, the water then needs to be decontaminated for it to be fit for human consumption. Water treatment plants usually handle the decontamination and treatment process for large quantities of water.
In the water treatment plant, the water is adequately treated before it is finally discharged to the public for consumption. However, if you are considering managing a water treatment plant, asides from having stellar equipment like oil centrifuges and industrial filtration systems, there are five major factors you need to be capable of handling;
1.Legal Process and Standards
When it comes to proper water treatment, it is vital to learn the laws regarding the discharge of wastewater. You may be required to provide an application that details; the characteristics, sources and volumetric flow of the wastewater. Hence, when managing a water treatment plant, it is in your best interests to find out the relevant laws of the area your plant is located. This will help you ensure that you are not engaging in anything considered illegal by the government.
2.Understanding the Characteristics of Inflows
You need to be aware of the processes involved in the production of your various waste streams. It is also important to conduct constant reviews of the procedures involved in combining reagents and products to produce wastewater streams. It is only when you fully understand the variability of the wastewater that you can properly design your water treatment system. It also helps you come up with measures to ensure consistent and compliant activities.
3.Hands-on Involvement
After you have successfully designed the process, you need to be actively involved in the initial planning stages to ensure that only waste that contributes to your wastewater discharge is used. Once this is done, you can then run tests and analysis on the waste to establish if it still has any significant concerns about compliance.
4.Flow Measurement
Wastewater operators need to familiarize themselves with the mass balance of the ideal amount of water to flow into the plant, and how much pollutants are in the wastewater. The process of conducting mass balances on the various components will help you quickly understand the requirements for developing an optimal system performance. You must pay special attention to the flow rate because it enables you to understand that capacity of your treatment system. You do not want to have any compliance issues from having wastewater that is not completely treated. Hence, you need to pay attention to all the details.
5.Operator Supervision and Excellent Equipment
Finally, as a manager or such role, you should ensure that your operators are fully aware of their responsibilities. These operators play a significant role in the water treatment process, as they are involved in; handling probes, housekeeping, handling filtration equipment, handling pumps etc. Their activities are what keeps the plant safe and orderly. Hence, if you can introduce technological equipment to the plant, it will help the operators to focus more on the important and unautomated responsibilities. This equipment can be oil centrifuges, industrial filtration systems etc.
Once you can handle all the factors listed above, then you can consider yourself fully capable of managing wastewater treatment plant. As time goes by, you will only get better at optimizing the process.
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