New Kent supervisors advised to prepare for sludge disposal in future

With all the issues of Synagro and sludge appearing before New Kent supervisors, it seemed only fitting that issues of disposing the county’s own sludge from the Parham Landing wastewater treatment plant be addressed.

Kris Edelman, an Aracadis consultant for New Kent, met with board members during the July 30 work session to address the issue. While a solution is not needed immediately, Edelman advised supervisors to consider a plan to prepare.

In the late 1990’s, New Kent and Henrico County worked in unison disposing the sludge, mainly because the plant served Henrico Jail East. Henrico continues to accept the sludge from the Parham Landing Plant, even after recent upgrades. However, Henrico officials notified New Kent of sludge handling and disposal plants at its own county facilities. Those officials notified New Kent to look into a new way to dispose of their own sludge.

Edelman’s presentation highlighted three options to address the issue. Option one focused on using a landfill to dispose of the items. Option two was labeled as ‘Class B’, better known as land application for the sludge. Option three was deemed as ‘Class A’, breaking down the sludge before using it for the land.

“After a study, we recommend the landfill option (SCAT),” said Edelman. “Our studies indicate that for the county, it offers the most benefits.”

Among those benefits include having the lowest life cycle, the ability to utilize tanks already at the Parham Landing wastewater plant for processing the sludge, being flexible enough to accept different types of sludge, and the ability to upgrade to ‘Class B’ if necessary. Another benefit is that the landfill option is cheaper than the other two that could cost up to a total of $23 million for the entire lifetime. By comparison, the cheapest ‘Class B’ would cost $30.1 million, while ‘Class A’ could cost nearly $32.1 million. However, all of those numbers are not set in stone.

“In the end, you’re going to have to address this by 2021,” said Larry Dame, New Kent’s public utilities director. “We wanted to be proactive in addressing this issue, so that’s why we brought it in front of the board today.”