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REAL-TIME MONITORING OF RECIRCULATING SAND AND PEAT FILTERS
Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org
Citation: Paper number 701P0104, . (doi: 10.13031/2013.15813)Authors: Scott M. Tsukuda, James M. Ebeling, Clement Solomon
Keywords: weather data, septic, online monitoring, water quality, automated data collection, real-time, operation and maintenance, wastewater, onsite, sewage
As part of an EPAs National Onsite Demonstration Project for Small Communities (NODP) -
Phase V, The Conservation Funds Freshwater Institute (Shepherdstown, WV) added real-time
monitoring technologies to existing recirculating sand and peat filter treatment systems.
The objectives for this monitoring project were to:
display real-time wastewater data on the Internet for use as an educational tool;
improve the understanding of innovative and alternative systems;
evaluate the feasibility of using telemonitoring in management districts with many small
independent treatment systems;
investigate probe maintenance requirements;
demonstrate how alternative measurement parameters correlate to conventional indicators
for monitoring system performance.
The following water quality parameters were measured every half hour: pH, oxidative reductive
potential (ORP), and temperature of the influent to the filters; ORP in the denitrification tank;
and pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), and temperature in the effluent pump sumps. In addition, flow
meters monitored flow rates throughout the two systems and pressure sensors recorded
backpressure on the two low pressure pump (LPP) dosing fields. Finally a small weather station
monitored ambient air temperature, humidity, solar radiation and rainfall. Data was transmitted
to a central data logger, recorded, and displayed on a computer screen and a subset of the data
was transmitted for display on the Internet.
This paper discusses the challenges encountered and lessons learned while operating this system.
System design and installation, operation and maintenance and, data analysis are discussed.