Waste Water Treatment Plant Refurbishment in Radomyšl

Radomyšl, a small village in the Southern Bohemia, experienced the opening ceremony of the refurbished waste water treatment plant (WWTP). What preceded? The local board already knew for several years that the village has to be provided with a completely new WWTP . The existing treatment plant was already obsolete and the operation took a lot of effort. The picture shows the WWTP prior to refurbishment.

The village board took the necessary administration steps and gained most of the funds from the subsidy fund. By applying the reasonable financing policy, the local board succeeded to collect the funds remaining to pay for the whole project and construction. Therefore, after the Construction Permission had been issued, the construction activities started in autumn 2011. The civil activities were executed by the general contractor, SWIETELSKY stavební, s.r.o., Dopravní stavby JIH Site. The WWTP was designed for 1200 PE in order to collect the municipal waste waters, supplied by means of the unified sewage system. The existing sludge lagoon was demolished and the new process building started to be built in its place. Thanks to favourable winter weather conditions, the construction continued without any difficulties and the concrete reservoirs for the first treatment line were constructed in early spring. The pump station as well as the treatment line components were erected within two weeks, including the electrical installations, and the process equipment was tested with clean water. On 24 May 2012, the sewerage feeder was relocated and connected to the new waste water treatment plant. The first treatment line was commissioned practically within one day as the new activation reservoir comprised the whole volume of the original activation reservoirs. Then, the civil contractor could start to excavate the steel structures of the original treatment plant. The concrete ponds, including the necessary process breaks and leakproof tests, were constructed and tested in June. The second treatment line was equipped with the process components and connected to the electrical installations and control system without any difficulties; therefore, waste water has run through the both treatment lines since the end of July. Land shaping, new fencing and new access road construction then formed the imaginary icing on the cake of the year-long project. The new waste water treatment plant is shown in the next picture.

The WWTP comprises the sophisticated and time-tested process equipment. The rough pretreatment section is concentrated in one combined process unit; the disk aeration elements together with air blowers supply sufficient quantity of air to both activation ponds. The final settling tanks with plastic sections have also been time-tested within the Czech and also Baltic republics. The ultrasonic treated water quantity measurement at discharge provides the good view of the treatment plant hydraulic load to the plant operator. Sludge terminal with the spiral sludge dehydrator facilitates handling of the excessive amounts of sludge.
The existing operation, documented by several treated water analyses, justifies the selected process equipment and perfect installation. However, any waste water treatment plant would be only the cold metal or plastic creature without the precise staff. Mr Josef Lojík, who was in charge of the previous treatment plant, coped with the transition to the new process equipment with bravura, although, as he confessed, he was scared. The new process equipment is far more sophisticated compared to the previous one and moreover includes several brand new machines. The trial operation that will last up to the end of next July will verify Mr Lojík´s abilities, but he is trusted by everyone.
The opening ceremony of the WWTP trial run attracted more than one hundred Radomyšl residents. Luboš Peterka, the Mayor of the village, welcomed all participants, the honoured guests had a short speech and all uninitiated persons got acquainted with the WWTP features and components. Afterwards, the symbolic ribbon was snipped, all participants made a tour of the treatment plant and the opening ceremony was ended by the party with live music, dancing, beautiful partly fermented wine and delicious meat titbits and sweets.

Opening ceremony, Luboš Peterka, Mayor (left)

Radomyšl residents making a tour of the WWTP

Ing. Ivan Knop