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Mr. Falls said, “I did it to the best of my ability, the way I had been taught.” He said the plant had been found to fail various lab tests starting in 1988, but the state had not required action. In 1990, he said the plant again failed a lab test, but no action was required. “This year nothing was suitable for them. I think they are just cracking down on everybody,” he added.
Mr. Falls said the heavy rains in April had caused a washout of the system. When that happens “it picks up the solids and carries them to the river,” he said. The plant is designed to handle up to 55,000 gallons per day. Normally about 22,000 gallons per day goes through the plant. During the washout 95,000 gallons went through the plant one day, he said. After that he said, “It takes maybe a month to build the organisms up to where the plant works right.”
He said another problem is caused by pumps in the aeration tank. They are designed to run for 15 minutes and then shut off for 15 minutes. When they shut off, there is a surge of water that is washed out of the system, Mr. Falls said.
He said this has been happening at the plant since it first opened, but that it has become more of a problem as the plant has increased from 15,000 gallons per day to 22,000. “With more water we have had a bigger surge that has picked up solids,” he said.
Mr. Falls said that inspectors had said they “would have an engineer look into the problem and try to help us,” but instead they filed complaints.
“I did my best,” Mr. Falls said. “We’ve been failing lab exams for six years, but they did not do anything until now.”
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