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Sludge in the San Bernard Update 1-25-22
Posted on Jan 26th, 2022

A FOR Environmental Committee Report
Update: Mon Jan 25, 2022
A Joint Community Involvement Meeting concerning the City of Brazoria WWTP pollution in the San Bernard
10:00 am teleconference call, joining were:
- City of Brazoria Mayor Roger Shugart
- City of Brazoria City Manager Mike Collard
- Strand Engineers, Brazoria’s Engineering Company
- LJA Engineers, FOR’s Engineering Firm
- A&M AgriLife Ricky Clinton, waste treatment expert
- FOR Environmental Committee Chairman Justin Hillis
- FOR Director Tom Ronayne
Having been neglected for many years, the biggest improvement of the City of Brazoria wastewater plant (WWTP) would be to install temporary equipment to establish sufficient aeration to support the necessary biomass, and then "seed" the plant with good, activated sludge from neighboring communities WWTP. These would be temporary fixes to increase the quality of the effluent, until repairs can be completed. Strand Engineering has located the necessary aeration equipment that is readily available in several configurations.
Sufficient money has been appropriated that would give City Mgr. Collard the ability to start purchasing or get the rental contracts in place for the equipment needed while it is still on the shelf.
The electrical power capacity at the plant has yet to be evaluated, but City Mgr. Collard said he and Strand Engineers will make that a priority to have an answer in the next week or two. Hopefully that will be good news.
A method to begin removing some of the sludge in the aeration ditch was also discussed, but that activity isn’t critical to getting the plant functioning on a temporary basis.
Brazoria City Council Special Meeting
Jan 25, 2022, 6:00 pm
Brazoria City Hall
At the meeting that evening, an agenda item was unanimously approved to authorize the city manager to spend up to $300,000 for temporary mitigation of the plant's issues with a completion date of April 1st. This date is achievable to have temporary measures in place until the permanent fix can be engineered and constructed. By then, the plant can be functioning at a fairly high capacity.
The above events show the benefits and importance of community involvement that produced potential solutions to improving the operation of the waste treatment facility and the quality of life on the San Bernard River.
- Read Jan 1, 2022 article “Sludge in the San Bernard”
- Read Jan 13, 2022 article “Sludge in the San Bernard”
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