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Proactive odour management at the City of Kalamazoo Water Reclamation Plant (KWRP)
KWRP in numbers
190,000 residents
18 municipal jurisdictions
Influent flow 25.5 MGD
The City of Kalamazoo is in southwestern Michigan approximately 136 miles west of Detroit, 73 miles southwest of Lansing, and 145 miles east of Chicago. A wide variety of industries and businesses call Kalamazoo home, including major players in the pharmaceutical, medical science, paper mill and craft beer industries.
Region
Industries
Platforms
Challenge
The City of Kalamazoo Water Reclamation Plant (KWRP) provides treatment services to more than 190,000 residents in 18 Kalamazoo-area municipal jurisdictions. The KWRP receives a significant portion of its wastewater from industrial sources. Manufacturers that produce pharmaceuticals, organic chemicals, spices and food additives, as well as projects associated from groundwater clean-up and remediation of contaminated groundwater.
The wastewater treatment facility has been under increasing scrutiny due to odour complaints from the local community. The odour complaints have been received from the adjacent communities, but historically it’s been difficult to assess KWRP’s specific contribution, or whether their operations are the cause of those nuisances at all. The plant’s proximity to other facilities makes it difficult to use traditional investigation methods in order to reach a conclusive answer.
Envirosuite has helped us to baseline local hydrogen sulfide levels to better evaluate odour mitigation efforts and keep the community informed of air quality in the area. The system is being expanded to track additional sources to best target odour reduction efforts and identify capital improvement projects that will have beneficial impacts on the Kalamazoo community.
- Jim Cornell, Kalamazoo Wastewater Division Manager, City of Kalamazoo
Solution
The ideal solution needed to consider various potential sources both on and off site for hydrogen sulphide (H2S), as well as not creating an impact to neighbouring locations, such as a hospital with sensitive receptors
KWRP worked with Envirosuite to implement a comprehensive platform to complement the odour control methods already in place, and to provide a dynamic approach for predicting and assessing odour impacts moving forward. To develop the solution, Envirosuite worked with the team at KWRP to understand the nuances of the facility and the requirements. The solution uses twelve sensors (six on site, six off site) that are strategically located at the fence line or near odour and/or gas emission sources in order to accurately characterise emissions. The solution would incorporate the existing onsite weather data to have the most accurate weather conditions at the site for analysis of odour impacts.
This solution includes a Software as a Service (SaaS) layer, providing KWRP staff with real-time information about fugitive emissions, the ability to determine the likely source of present and past odour events, and even provide advance warning about high-risk periods whenever possible.
Result
With the solution in place, the KWRP staff can gain better situational awareness around their operations and put them in a better position to investigate and resolve odour complaints from citizens located near the facility.
Since implementing the solution, KWRP have been able to identify potential emission sources and analyse emission source contributions. The data has shown that by using both the monitoring data and advanced analysis provided by Envirosuite’s EVS Omnis platform, the plant’s management has been able to baseline hydrogen sulfide gas levels in the wastewater treatment plant and in the surrounding vicinity. The KWRP has also used this data to establish a constructive dialog with other industries towards improving their pre-treatment processes as well.
Lower cost of odour reduction and mitigation strategies
Build trust with the local community
Shorten investigation time of emissions incidents
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