Proceedings of Local AssociationsSource: Sewage Works Journal, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Jul., 1941), pp. 822-827Published by: Water Environment FederationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25029238 .

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Proceedings of Local Associations

CALIFORNIA SEWAGE WORKS ASSOCIATION Thirteenth Annual Spring Conference, Santa Cruz, California, April 20^22, 1941

On Sunday afternoon, April 20, President Harold Farnsworth Gray assembled many operators and other interested members in the Bay

View Eoom of the Casa Del Eey Hotel at 4:30 P.M. for the purpose of

conducting an operator's symposium. Highlights of the symposium were discussions on digester troubles, sewage and sludge pumps, switch

boards, pump starters, float rods and floats. Ealph Sotter presided over this symposium.

At 7:00 P.M. members and guests assembled in the Trocadero Bowl

for a buffet supper. Continuing along the line of operation, T. E.

Haseltine presented a very interesting and informative address under

the general topic, "Operating Problems in Other Parts of the United States."

Harold May, Chairman of the Local Arrangements Committee, as

sembled the entire group in the lobby of the hotel on Monday morning for the purpose of forming a caravan to sewage treatment plants of

interest. The caravan proceeded to the Main Garrison of Fort Ord.

The Association was taken on a short tour through the garrison and

then to the newly completed installation of Doten septic tanks used for

treatment of the garrison sewage. The next stop was made at Carmel. Bernard Eowntree explained

the operation of the various features of the plant. A stop was made for luncheon at Biff's Place, near Monterey. Past

President Pardee, city manager at Monterey, was called on during the

luncheon meeting for a few remarks.

The activated sludge treatment plant at Salinas was next observed.

As this plant was out of service for repair purposes, many of the group were given the opportunity of observing the construction details of this

type of plant. The caravan was concluded with a visit to the East Garrison of

Fort Ord. The treatment plant here is unique in that all sewage is

pumped from the camp to the top of a nearby hill, where Doten type septic tanks and drainage ponds are located.

Members and guests assembled at the Trocadero Bowl, in the eve

ning for the Spring Conference banquet. The Association was honored

by the presence of C. A. Emerson, Jr.; President of the Federation of

Sewage Works Associations, as the guest speaker of the evening. Brief talks of welcome were given the group by Mayor C. D. Hinkle

and by County Health Officer John D. Fuller, M.D. President Gray presented Past-Presidents Goudey, Eeinke, Haseltine, and Eeynolds

during the evening. 822

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Vol. 13, No. 4 PROCEEDINGS OF LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS 823

President Gray gave a fine eulogy of Past-President Alexander Bell, and adjourned the meeting in memory of him.

President Gray called the business meeting of the Association to order in the Bay View Room at 9:00 A.M. on Tuesday, April 22. Dur

ing the meeting, the following reports were presented :

Constitutional Revision Committee?Progress Report.L. B. Reynolds

Publicity Committee.Wayland Jones

Award Committee .Albert Castro

Legislative Committee.Carl Hoskinson

Finance Committee.J. F. Smith

Certification Committee .R. D. Woodward

Design Practice Committee.Richard Pomeroy Industrial Wastes Committee .W. T. Knowlton

Safety Standards Committee.Joseph Corrao

Program Committee .Ray Goudey Operators Panel.R. R. Sotter

A report on schools, submitted by Chairman R. L. Derby, was read by the Secretary and supplemented by G. E. Arnold. The business meet

ing was adjourned at 10:30 A.M.

During the technical session the following papers were presented :

"Hydrogen Sulfide in Sewage" by Fred D. Bowlus. "Corrosion of Iron by Sulfides" by Richard Pomeroy. "Cross Connections in Sewerage" by G. E. Arnold.

The following participated in a discussion of the above papers :

Roy Ramseier R. F. Goudey Ted Haseltine William A. Allen Richard Pomeroy Harvey Ludwig

A luncheon meeting was held at the Trocadero Bowl at 12:15 P.M.

During this meeting, Ted Haseltine presented a review of the Chemists'

Breakfast held that morning. R. D. Woodward of Laguna Beach pre sented a life-saving device made of rope. He also exhibited some elec

tric wire with a special protective coating which seemed to be quite serv

iceable around sewage treatment plants. Technical sessions were re

sumed at 2:00 P.M.

The following papers were presented :

"Mechanism of Flocculation in Water and Sewage Practice" by H. F.

Ludwig and Russell G. Ludwig, "Use of Port Orford Cedar at Sewage Treatment Plants" by Edgar A.

Brown,

"Cooling of Sewage Gas Engines" by J. H. Wallace, "Detection of Metallic and War Gas Poisons in Sewage" by R. F.

Goudey,

"Sewerage Facilities of Army Cantonments" by Dwight Bissell, M.D.

Harvey Ludwig, Ted Haseltine, Harold Gray, Edgar Brown, William Allen, John Skinner, John Maga, Harold Davey, J. H, Wallace, J. C.

Clark, Roy E. Ramseier, and Dr. Dwight Bissell participated in very

interesting discussions concerning the above papers.

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824 SEWAGE WORKS JOURNAL July, 1941

The 83 members and 32 guests who attended the Conference ad

journed to their various ways at 5 :00 P.M.

William T. Ingram, Secretary

SOUTH DAKOTA SEWAGE WORKS SHORT COURSE First Annual Meeting, South Dakota State College, May 19-21, 1941

The Division of Engineering, South Dakota State College, co-operat

ing with the South Dakota State Board of Health, held the first Annual South Dakota Sewage Works Operators

' Short Course, May 19, 20 and

21, 1941. The classes were conducted in the Engineering Building of State College in Brookings, South Dakota, and the laboratory analyses were run in the Sanitary Engineering Laboratory, there being sufficient

room and equipment for the registrants to work individually. Announcements were sent to every operator in the state a month

prior to the start of the school, and in these announcements it was

emphasized that this was to be a school and not a convention. Every

registrant was expected to attend all classes, participate in discussions

and to perform his own laboratory work. As an incentive to the fulfill

ment of these obligations the College presented Certificates of Attend ance to those men who registered, attended all classes, and did satis

factory work.

At the time of registration all of the registrants received a bound

notebook containing information relating to the course, certain material

prepared by the State Board of Health (safety precautions, conversion

factors, tabulation of chemicals used in sewage treatment, etc.), pro cedures for the various analytical determinations, data sheets, calcula

tion and note sheets, and publications from a few commercial houses.

It is planned to have the lecturers' notes mimeographed and sent to the

registrants so that these notes may be incorporated into the notebooks.

The men seemed to appreciate these books, were glad to get the informa

tion contained therein, and by keeping notes on the notesheets bound in

the books they had a complete record of the course as well as a supply of essential information between two covers.

Arrangements were made to house all of the men under one roof in

one of our boys' dormitories. This proved to be quite satisfactory as

there were 20 men registering representing some 16 South Dakota com

munities. By housing the men under one roof they became better ac

quainted, could discuss among themselves questions that arose in con

nection with the school and problems peculiar to each operator, their ex

penses for the school were materially decreased, and they seemed to feel

that they were a fraternal unit.

During the formation of plans for the short course a definite attempt was made to assign a certain general subject to each instructor for the

duration of the course. Other men were asked to give talks on more

specialized topics such as sewage bacteriology, utilization of sludge gas,

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Vol. 13, No. 4 PROCEEDINGS OF LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS 825

concrete in sewage treatment plants, etc. The instructional work was

handled in this manner because it was felt that if one man handled, for instance, sewage treatment, he should develop the work from primary

screening through the complete process up to and including the disposal of the effluent. In this way duplication of effort was limited, conflicting opinions of the various speakers were kept to a minimum, and it was

felt that the men would be better able to follow a single individual's trend of thought on one particular subject rather than varying the gen eral trend by having more than one speaker handle one general subject.

The general plan of the school was to have classwork in the morn

ings, the lecture periods to correspond to the regular College recitation

periods, there being a ten-minute rest period between classes. The ask

ing of questions during lectures was discouraged; instead, the men were

asked to make a note of any comments they cared to make and to save

them all until the rest period. This plan worked very well in that all speakers completed their remarks in the allotted time and many times there were lively discussions during the ten-minute free period. The afternoon periods were given over to laboratory demonstrations and

procedures. The first day the men made an inspection trip of the

Brookings disposal plant, filling out the regular inspection forms of the South Dakota State Board of Health. They also collected samples from three points throughout the plant and brought these samples into the laboratory to be used in their analytical work. The second afternoon

samples were brought in for the men and they proceeded with the ana

lytical determinations after laboratory demonstrations. Each man per formed each determination and kept individual results and data sheets, all of this material being kept in the notebooks that were handed to the men at the start of the course.

The annual banquet was held Wednesday noon, May 21, 1941. Mr. W. W. Towne, Director,-Division of Sanitary Engineering, South Da

kota State Board of Health, presided and introduced the main speaker, Professor R. L. Patty, Head, Department of Agricultural Engineering, South Dakota State College. Professor Patty discussed his work with "Rammed Earth," elaborating on its qualities as a structural material.

At this dinner meeting the Certificates of Attendance were presented to the registrants by H. B. Blodgett, Head, Department of Civil Engi neering and Acting Dean, Division of Engineering, South Dakota State

College. The Short Course was very fortunate in being able to obtain the

services of John A. Logan, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Missouri. Professor Logan, in line with the plan out

lined above, gave a series of three lectures. The first talk, primary treatment of sewage, dealt with the various forms of primary treatment

including racks, screens, grit chambers, sedimentation units, Imhoff and septic tanks. Proceeding in a chronological order, his second talk covered the secondary treatment of sewage, dealing with contact beds, trickling filters, sand filters, activated sludge, and disposal by dilution. In his third talk Professor Logan covered elementary hydraulics of

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826 SEWAGE WORKS JOURNAL July, 1941

sewage flow, friction losses, transporting capacity of sewage and neces

sary velocities in sewers, leading up to a discussion on sewage pumps and sewage pumping stations.

A second man who carried a very large share of the teaching load

was Kenneth Spies, Associate Sanitary Engineer, South Dakota State Board of Health. Mr. Spies gave papers on sewerage characteristics,

sewage plant operation and sludge digestion. Each of his papers was

very completely outlined, the outline being put on the blackboard as he talked. The men were very careful about copying these outlines

and many favorable comments were heard on this method of presenta tion. Mr. Spies had compiled much interesting and valuable informa

tion and the operators will profit from being able to get down all of the material that was presented.

W. W. Towne, Director, Division of Sanitary Engineering, South

Dakota State Board of Health, gave papers on public health aspects of sewage treatment, sewage arithmetic, chemicals in sewage treatment

in the absence of H. E. Hoist, President of the South Dakota Water and

Sewage Works Conference, and led a general discussion on the last

afternoon of the school. Mr. Towne has served in his present capacity for approximately 12 years, consequently he is familiar with the prob lems the operators have to face in this state. In his first paper he elaborated on the growth in percentage of persons served by sewage treatment plans in South Dakota and the nation, stressed the need for

more complete sewage disposal units by citing instances of water-borne

epidemics, and presented to the operators the role that they had to

play as public health agents. His paper on sewage arithmetic dealt

with conversion factors of parts per million to grains per gallon, grams to pounds, liters to quarts, cubic feet per second to gallons per day, etc.

(all of these factors and many more were composited on one sheet and

placed in the notebooks distributed to the registrants). Mr. Towne's

paper on chemicals in sewage treatment dealt with the growth and

present status of chemical treatment as well as describing the mechanics

of the process. The discussion led by him on the last day of the school was given over to the problems faced by the different operators, the

conditions under which the various plants have to operate, and the atti

tude of the State Board of Health in regard to the keeping of records, sewage analyses, etc. One of the major issues taken up was the type of paint to be used in tanks subject to alternate wetting and drying. It

was suggested that all operators communicate immediately with the

State Board of Health regarding paint problems and satisfactory solu tions. It was also suggested that the State office be contacted on any other major problems and their possible solutions.

In addition to the above named speakers, Professor Calvin C. Oleson,

Department of Civil Engineering, South Dakota State College, gave a

very interesting talk on "Concrete in Sewage Treatment Plants." His

paper dealt with the fundamentals of sound concrete leading to a dis

cussion of the proper method of mixing and placing concrete subject to

alternate wetting and drying in localities with a large temperature dif

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Vol. 13, No. 4 PROCEEDINGS OF LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS 827

ferential. In answer to certain questions he elaborated on the proper method of repairing unsound concrete walls. A very lively discussion

centered around his paper. W. I. Metzger, Instructor in Bacteriology at South Dakota State

College, presented a paper, "Bacteriology in Sewage Treatment." He

discussed the various types and classifications of bacteria and elab

orated on the different kinds of bacterial action in each type of treat

ment. His discussion on bacterial action in trickling filters was well

taken and afforded a subject for discussion as the majority of treatment

plants in this state have trickling filters and at the present time many operators are experiencing difficulties with their filters due to sloughing.

Mr. Leland Bradney, Chief Chemist of the Sioux Falls plant, gave an interesting talk on the "Utilization of Sludge Gas." Mr. Bradney spoke as a practical man, the Sioux Falls plant utilizing the sludge

digestion gas in gas engines. Mr. Bradney gave costs, operating data, difficulties encountered, and plans for future installations.

Mr. R. ?. Bragstad, City Engineer of Sioux Falls, presented a paper on "Choice and Maintenance of Pre-treatment Works"; Mr. C. A.

McTaggart, Dakota Pipe and Culvert Company, presented interesting information on the "Manufacture and Use of Armco Pipe"; and

Charles E. Carl presented a short movie on sewage treatment and con

ducted the demonstrational classes for the various analytical deter

minations that the registrants were to make. These tests consisted of

(1) methods and procedures to be followed in sampling, (2) tempera ture, (3) settleable solids, (4) relative stability (m?thyl?ne blue), (5) dissolved oxygen, and (6) five-day B.O.D. Mr. Towne, Mr. Spies, Professor Logan and Mr. Carl worked together in the laboratory help

ing the men perform these tests and assisting them in making the neces

sary calculations.

Charles E. Carl, South Dakota State College

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