NEERI assures foam-free treated water

Nashik: The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), which has been working with IIT-Powai on the problem of foam formation at the outlet of the sewage treatment plants (STP), has pledged a solution within two months.
Municipal commissioner Praveen Gedam, while addressing the general body meeting of the civic body on Saturday, said he had approached NEERI for a solution to the problem of foam formation by the STPs and the river pollution.
Accepting that the treated water flowing from the Agar Talki and Tapovan STPs was indeed forming foam in the Godavari and, in turn, pollution it, Gedam said that he even offered to pay the institute if it got the problem rectified from a government agency.
Meanwhile, the Nashik Municipal Coproation (NMC) will ask the contractor managing the plant to make rectify the problem and will also slap 10% fine on him for the purpose, added Gedam.
"I have seen the testing of biological oxygen demand (BOD) of STP output in a government lab, which, as per international standards, is 5 mg/l. With the existing design, we cannot bring it to that level. NEERI is working on it. Till then, we can ask the water resources department to let us make holes in the weirs and release the STP output; they can be closed later," said Gedam.
Director of NEERI Rakesh Kumar told TOI, "We have worked on a couple of things and the operational efficiency has improved. There has been at least 40% reduction in foam formation. We, along with IIT-Powai, had 2-3 sample analysis and came out with 2-3 options. We are working not only to reduce foam reduction but to bring down BOD to less than 10 mg/l as well. We are working on tertiary treatment and should be able to come up with a solution in a month."
He added that some of the problems the plant encountered included choking up of some units, no proper aeration and less than required chlorination, which have now been resolved.
Foam formation at the outlets of the STPs has been focal point of discussion among environment activists and corporators, who have blamed the occurrence to river pollution, water hyacinth and breeding of mosquitoes.
On Saturday, the topic came up for discussion once again at the general body meeting when corporators spoke about the stink at the Agar Takli STP.
The pollution caused due to foam formation at the sewage treatment plants of the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) and the stink, would take some more time to get resolved with no concrete solution at the moment. Accepting that there was foam formation at the outlets of the STPs municipal commissioner Praveen Gedam said that the NMC had asked for a solution to National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI).
NEERI that is working with IIT-Powai in this regard assured that a solution would be in place in the next two months.
"I have seen the testing of biological oxygen demand (BOD) of STP output in a government lab. As per international standards it is 5 mg/l. With the existing design we cannot bring it to 5. NEERI is working on it. Till then we can ask the water resources department to let us make holes in the weirs and release the STP output. Later we can close them," said Gedam agreeing that there was foam formation and he had asked NEERI for solution.
He said that he had asked NEERI for a solution to the foam problem and also offered to pay them if they got it done from a government agency.
Director of NEERI, Rakesh Kumar told TOI, "We have worked on a couple of things and the operational efficiency has improved. There has been at least 40 percent reduction in foam. With IIT Powai we had 2-3 sample analysis and hence came out with 2-3 options. We are working not only for foam reduction but also to bring down the biological oxygen demand (BOD) to less than 10 mg/l. We are working on tertiary treatment and we should be able to do it in a month."
He said that some units were choked, aeration was not happening, the plant was operating only for sometime and chlorination was less than what was required but now these problems were resolved.