Warsaw Wastewater Utility celebrated Earth Day Monday with an open house.
Brian Davison, utilities superintendent, said the department used to do an Earth Day event probably 15 years ago, then “we ended up with several construction projects so it wasn’t good to have the public out here. We just completed the $30 million expansion project maybe two years ago, so we thought we’d open it back up to the community and try to get them to come see what it is, to see what’s involved in the treatment process.”
This year was the first year of the department having an Earth Day event again.
During the open house, people were able to take tours of the wastewater facility through the entire wastewater treatment process, “showing the equipment that’s used, explaining the process of how it works. It’s a biological process. We’re not adding chemicals to treat the water. So we’re just showing that whole process and how it works,” Davison said.
The department deals with 3-1/2 million gallons a day and serves Warsaw, Winona Lake, Leesburg, two mobile home communities “and we’re getting ready to take on the Tippy-Chapman Sewer District,” he said.
During the treatment process, wastewater starts off in the screen room where wastewater goes through a screening area that removes things that probably shouldn’t have been flushed in the first place. Then it goes through grit removal, which removes sand and gravel. Then wastewater goes through the primary tanks, which lets the heavy solid settle out and removing those. Then wastewater goes through selector tanks where the wastewater gets phosphorus removed “naturally, biologically.” Then, wastewater goes through the aeration tanks and final settling tanks, where the microbes are separated from the water and goes through the disinfection process before the water is reaerated, Davison explained.
He said he thought showing people the wastewater process helps show people what they should and shouldn’t put the drain.
“Most of them are amazed at the process in general and what it takes to treat (waste),” he said.
As of about noon, Davison said he’d given two tours with a total of 30 or so people. Other wastewater employees were also giving tours Monday. Davison said reactions from people “were pretty positive.” No one really thinks about what happens when something goes down the drain and what happens to it.
“They’re amazed at what the water looks like coming in versus what we’re releasing into the Tippy River,” he said.
Davison said they had a quite a bit of interest in seeing the wastewater process Monday, which was more interest than what they used to have.
“We’re hoping this continues and we can make this an annual event,” he said.
During the open house, there were 200 redbud trees given away, as well as other items. As of about noon, Davison said he believed there were still trees available for people to take home.