WESTFIELD—The city’s Department of Public Works (DPW) needs to replace equipment to keep one of its highest annual cost responsibilities flowing.
The Westfield DPW is seeking quotes for a new dehumidifier at the city’s wastewater treatment facility at Sackett Street and is expected to close on a deal this week. The project is expected to cost about $5,000 and will help to maintain the city’s wastewater treatment.
David Billips, director of Westfield Public Works
“The wastewater treatment facility needs a new dehumidifier, they have to replace one that’s there that’s pretty old,” David Billips, superintendent of the DPW, said.
The dehumidifier is used to keep a thickening agent used in the process of wastewater treatment from becoming too moist, thus rendering it useless in the process of producing solid waste from wastewater. The thickening agent allows the department to remove water from solid, thus reducing the weight of the solid waste. This is important in the process of wastewater treatment because waste needs to be taken away to another area by a subcontractor and the city is charged by the ton to take it away.
“Part of the system they use—the thickening agent they use to dewater sludge—comes in, then they mix it with the water and the waste becomes a solid,” Billips said. “But if you have too much humidity the powder is going to cake up and you can’t push it through.”
The wastewater is originally about 3 to 4 percent solid, but after the treatment it becomes 23 to 24 percent solid, Billips said, and after treatment the water is sent back through the water treatment facility.
The resulting sludge, as Billips called it, is then stored in containers and is held for the subcontractor to take it away. Currently, the sludge goes to the Hartford Wastewater Plant in Hartford, and is incinerated there as a means of disposal. Previous options have included locations in New York, where it has been incinerated or buried in a landfill.
Currently, the contract costs the department about $400,000 annually, and is one of the two highest recurring costs for the department on an annual basis. The contract is a one-year contract with two additional option years and is expected to go out to bid again later this year.
