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Oldsmar takes neighborly new tack with its sludge

The city is turning to heat drying to avoid more hauling, but it hopes to work with nearby cities for a regional system.

By TAMARA EL-KHOURY
Published April 25, 2006

OLDSMAR - Let's talk about sludge.

Or "biosolids," the term preferred by Thomas Friedrich, vice president of Jones Edmunds, an environmental engineering consultant hired by the city to talk about sludge ... er, biosolids.

The city should spend $3.9-million to add a belt filter press and heat drying system to its reclaimed water facility, Friedrich recently told the City Council. The result would be a safe, dry, organic and reusable product that can be used as fertilizer.

And it wouldn't need to be hauled away, as is the case now. Some companies remove the product for free.

Finding alternatives to hauling sludge is becoming a concern for cities as suitable land for disposal is being sold to developers. Also, counties accepting waste from outside cities are demanding that they adhere to tougher environmental standards.

"It's getting harder and harder for us to find places to spread it," said John Mulvihill, Oldsmar's director of public works.

The city hauls between 16,000 and 24,000 gallons of sludge a week, Mulvihill said.

Much of it comes from wastewater, which produces two by-products: solids and liquid that is highly treated and put in the reclaimed water system.

Now the solids are biologically broken down and treated with lime, Mulvihill said. What remains contains bacteria and organisms that can be spread only in licensed areas.

For years, the city has used a contract hauler to take the matter to permitted sod farms in Manatee, Citrus and Hardee counties.

About five years ago, Mulvihill said, the city started looking for alternatives to hauling sludge. The answer is to use the heat drying system, which creates a dry, black pellet that does not need to be hauled away and can be used for fertilizer.

The city has budgeted $300,000 in next year's capital improvement plan for engineering services on the project. The remaining cost will be paid in coming years. Officials hope to have the system up and running in three years.

Mulvihill said Oldsmar would like to work with other cities, particularly Dunedin and Tarpon Springs.

"One of our goals was to talk to all the cities and see if we could convince everybody to do kind of a regional facility," Mulvihill said.

Dunedin talked to Largo about partnering on a similar project, Mulvihill said, and Tarpon Springs is producing a product that can be hauled to landfills.

This week marks the third year that the county has used a heat drying system to produce the black pellets, said Mike Engelmann, senior engineer with Pinellas County utilities.

"For any municipal area that's as built out as we are, that's the only thing they can do," Engelmann said.

He said Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Dunedin have all contacted the county to see if it has extra capacity for sludge in its system. It doesn't.

Engelmann encourages municipalities to pool their resources to offset the costs, as Oldsmar is trying to do.

[Last modified April 25, 2006, 01:08:16]