Innovative Thinking plus Powerful Tools Guide Odor Control Study Solutions

摘要

The Metro Wastewater Reclamation District (District) collects and treats about 130 million gallons per day (MGD) of wastewater. The District retained CH2M (now Jacobs) to perform a comprehensive odor analysis of the District's Transmission System and the Robert W. Hite Treatment Facility (RWHTF) as part of the PAR 1245 Air Flow Management and Odor Control Study (Study). The overall goal of the Study was to evaluate the causes, sources, and types of odors that may be emitted from the facilities and to recommend consistent and proactive approaches to managing potential odor issues in the future. Powerful tools including AERMOD, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling, the WATS (Wastewater Aerobic/anaerobic Transformations in Sewers) model, and a CH2M (now Jacobs) in-house comprehensive multi-criteria analysis (MCA) tool proved to be invaluable in predicting baseline offsite impacts, offsite benefits upon implementation of proposed odor mitigation solutions, and evaluation of alternatives. Furthermore, "outside the box" thinking was applied for utilizing these tools in multiple innovative ways. Together, this approach provided maximum offsite odor benefits while optimizing proposed incurred costs. This paper provides an in depth look at the powerful tools utilized in the study, the innovative approaches applied, and the findings, conclusions, and recommendations for the District moving forward.