A new addition

in the works for Fayetteville's sewer plant will simplify how the city

handles its sludge disposal and save money at the same time.

The city is

taking sealed bids for a sludge loading station that will allow for roughly

three days worth of sludge to be stored on-site. Due to the lack of a

storage place for the sludge, the city currently pumps its sludge into

trailers that are delivered to the plant by the contractor that hauls

the sludge to the Hickory Ridge landfill in Conley, said Fayetteville

water director Rick Eastin.

When the trailers

aren't there, no sludge can be processed, Eastin said.

The process

of removing water from the sludge can take a while, meaning it takes six

to eight hours to fill up just one trailer that hauls 20 tons of the material,

Eastin said. The city pays an hourly rate for the time the trailer is

on-site being filled up in addition to the transport time, Eastin added.

With the new

sludge storage building, the city will be able to run the sludge dewatering

machine when it needs to since there will be a place to store the material.

When the trucks

come to haul the sludge in the future, the trailers "can be loaded

up real quick," Eastin said. And the trucks can make trips here when

there's less traffic on the roads, he added.

"It gives

us a lot more flexibility with our operations," Eastin noted.

Although the

city has a permit to discharge up to 3.75 million gallons of treated sewage

a day into Whitewater Creek, the sludge cannot be disposed of in the same

manner. It must be taken to a solid waste disposal facility.

The bids for

the project will be opened Thursday, Aug. 14, at 2 p.m.

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