Carson City unveils sewer plant's sweeter smell

What happens when you truck away 2,000 cubic yards of dried solid waste?

The air starts smelling much cleaner downwind.

In this case, downwind is east of Carson City's Wastewater Reclamation Plant and cleaner air can be expected since 400 dump trucks worth of biosolids have disappeared.

The test will come next summer.

"If they do what they're saying, that will be great," said Leonard Swisher, who lives on Cambridge Court, the nearest residential block to the reclamation plant. "I'm looking forward to getting rid of the smell."

The plant last month retired the evaporation ponds that line Fifth Street and Edmonds Drive as a mining company and a ranch hauled off the final harvest of dried solids.

Future summer days should no longer carry the stench from 14 acres of evaporation ponds to the River View and River Knolls neighborhoods. Swisher said the smell has worsened in the past year or two.

"There were a dozen days when it was just putrid," Swisher said. "We've had evenings where we didn't want to have the back door open because of the smell."

Instead of those outdoor ponds, the plant now can dry the same amount of treated waste in one indoor centrifuge only 20 feet long and 2 feet across. The centrifuge in one day spins 9,545 cubic feet of digested waste sludge down to 20 cubic feet of dried solids.

These solids drop from the upstairs centrifuge into 20-yard containers at ground level. These are shipped off to the landfill.

The new process contains all the smell within the new, 48-foot tall, $5.5 million solids handling facility, the tallest structure at the reclamation plant.

Anybody with a piqued curiosity of what happens after the toilet is flushed may attend the facility's dedication ceremony and open house at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The entrance to the reclamation plant is on Butti Way just off Fifth Street.

"I hope people have an understanding that the city has made an effort to be a better neighbor," said Kelvin Ikehara, the city's sewer operations chief.

The solids handling facility rose on the priority list because of odor complaints from residents and because population growth has made the 22 evaporation ponds less effective, Ikehara said.

The centrifuge system had been planned for 2003-04 but the twin centrifuges went into service in March. Only one centrifuge operates at any one time, with the other serving as a spare.

The centrifuges have handled all the treated waste since March but the evaporating ponds this summer dried the waste from last winter, Ikehara said.

Each summer for the past four decades, solid waste 4 inches thick has dried down to one inch during the summer. The evaporation ponds will likely be converted to a park or landscaped setting of some sort but a few pond beds nearest the handling facility will remain in case problems arise with the centrifuges, Ikehara said.

What: Dedication ceremony and open house at Carson City's Wastewater Reclamation Plant

When: 2 p.m. Wednesday

Where: 3320 E. Fifth St. (use Butti Way entrance)