Garfield wastewater training discussed

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Mar 05, 20150

Garfield is workng to provide training for operation of their recently updated wastewater treatment facility.

“It’s difficult to learn some of that stuff unless you have somebody there to show you how to do it,” said Mayor Ray McCown. “It’s been a headache the last couple years because it was neglected. It’ll take another six months to a year to get to fully operational. It just takes time to learn. It’s a complicated piece of equipment.”

Monitoring the plant in its transition phase is David Tysz, the retired Tekoa wastewater superintendent.

He will perform the role until Garfield Public Works employee Robby Johnson is granted his Class II Operator-Wastewater Designation from the Washington state Department of Ecology (DOE).

Tysz began training Johnson as an assistant last spring.

“They’re doing really well now. It’s on-the-job training,” Tysz said. “He just has to wait until August to get his time in, according to the state. When he gets his Class II I’m done.”

At the Garfield City Council meeting Feb. 11, McCown expressed concern that the proper training was not taking place.

“I believe Robby is being trained the right way,” Councilman Tim Southern told the Gazette. “We’re just bringing everyone up to speed, but we may need Tysz out here a little more. It’s just a work in progress.”

Last April, a distribution arm was replaced at Garfield’s treatment plant for a bio-cell filter. The arm, which stretches across the filter’s 20-foot tall cylindrical basin, distributes influent and recycled wastewater, which helps with nitrification of the wastewater.

The purpose of the $50,500 worth of work was to maintain compliance with the plant’s DOE discharge permit. Treated water from the facility flows into Silver Creek.

Once the DOE certifies Johnson, he will operate the system.

In addition to last year’s work on the plant’s distribution arm, smaller upgrades are due to be completed this year, including a change from gas chlorination to liquid.

Ellie Key of DOE told the Gazette in January that the liquid practice is less intensive as far as maintenance required, indicating that the idea is a more operator-friendly plant.

The distribution arm needed to be replaced because gears and drives in the mechanism broke down.

Force of the water turns the arm, and if the arm does not turn, it fails to distribute the wastewater as designed.

In 1996, Garfield’s facility was retrofitted, adding the bio-cell with rotating arm.

“I think Robby’s doing a good job,” said Tysz, who is a current Tekoa city councilman. “He’s taking the plant from when it’s busted down, and brought it up to snuff. He’s willing to learn it. It’s just a political atmosphere he has to deal with.”