Council and city employees look for solution for wastewater screening
Gainesville City Council members Treva Warrick, left, and Lana Bushong, right, were part of a group who visited the city’s wastewater treatment facility last Tuesday and spoke with city employee Levi Evans about an issue workers have had screening out various items that have been flushed down toilets across the city and end up at the treatment plant. Evans is pictured here showing the council members the city’s current basket filter system, which is installed 20 foot below the open door shown here.
Several members of the Gainesville City Council spent an hour before their June 9 meeting touring the city’s wastewater treatment facility and hearing from city employee Levi Evans about a growing concern at the plant.
Evans explained that workers routinely screen a variety of items that have been flushed from residents’ toilets into the city’s sewer system and eventually make their way to the treatment facility.
While the city’s current basket filter system catches many of those objects, some still slip through.
He said when larger objects bypass the basket filter, they can become lodged in the system’s grinders, resulting in costly and time-consuming repairs.
Evans said city employees are currently investigating options to install an additional screening device close to where the sewer lines enter the city’s property at the wastewater treatment facility, which will catch most of the larger items before they get to the basket filter, located further down the line. The council members in attendance agreed that there needs to be a solution.
Evans said the workers will need to get an estimate on what that would cost. A former estimate from a few years ago was around $150,000.