Minutes-11/30/1963

Special Meeting, November 30, 1963 (cont'd.) can gradually overload it. You can test it. You are supplying the agitation so that you're mixing it all the time. In a lagoon, the only circulation is wave action or gas bubbles. Near the surface, organisms exist which have no odor. As you go down, there is no free oxygen available, so you have other organisms which are the ones which give off odors. In this type of plant, there is always oxygen present so there are only the surface organisms present. The only specification about placing a unit is that it should be 250 feet from the nearest residence. Would not need more than an acre of land. It would save crossing the railroad with the sewer line. Q - Does this large tank in the enclosure have to be cleaned at any time? A - No, you're converting all of your organic material. You can drain off when necessary and spread it right out on the ground. On the second tank, probably once a year you might have to waste some down out of it. You don't completely drain them. There is nothing down in there that you would want to get at. Cost of operation estimated: about 120 kw hours per day (in Tiffin) Q - What would sub-zero weather do to it? A - There is one similar to this at Meadowbrook Trailer Court and he operated all last year without any problems. The only problem he ran into was that the drains from the trailers were clogging up. Q - Where else in the country is this process being used? A - They have been in use quite a few years east of here--Ohio, Illinois, etc. Cost: The unit at Holiday Inn cost $13,800. We would have to go a little over 50% larger. A 40,000 gallon tank would handle the town's needs for 20 years or so. The cost as given to Mr. Nicholas by the contractor is $28,000. The cost of the projected lagoon, including extra pipe needed and the cost of land is $19,275. The difference between the $28,000 and $19,275 could be absorbed in the chsion in the project which it was felt necessary to include because of the insecurity of the lagoon system where it is, for flood control and other unforeseeable emergencies. Barring all unforeseen difficulties, you still have some $5,000 to work on. After you get the basic plant, you can expand at very little cost. Mr. Nicholas checked with Dale Dahnke about his cooling system. During the summer, he has been using 700 gallons per hour. He told Mr. Nicholas that once the city goes on sewer, he would put in a cooling tower for re-use of his water and not pump off. What we will probably have to do is consider what type of water, etc., can be discharged into the sewer. We can set up our own sewer ordinance, including such things as hot discharge water, acids, etc. In the case of industry, this would definitely be a problem. Another thing which should be included in an ordinance is a specified method of tapping into the sewer--either with "T's" or specified equipment. Status of plans: Profile plans are complete except for Ingham's property, on which we are waiting for his decision. We are in line with our original estimate as far as sewers are concerned. Sewer bids have been coming in cheaper than estimated lately ($3. and $3.10) which would give us a $3500 cushion if trend continues. Barring any unforeseen difficulty, and if we get a good bid on the sewer, our original bid would be pretty close still.