HOWE PRESENTS PAPER

HOWE PRESENTS PAPER AT POLLUTION CONTROL CONFERENCE

Rick Howe of Cape Cod Biochemical Company in Pocasset, Massachusetts, was one of the presenters at the 60th annual conference of the New England of the National Water Pollution Control Federation, held January 22-25, at the Copley Marriott Hotel in Boston.

Howe and Omesh Kumar of LEA Engineering in Boston presented a paper entitled "On-Site Maintenance Using a Bacterial Enzyme Mixture" The paper was presented during the Decentralized and On-Site Wastewater Treatment Alternatives and Management portion of the conference. Slides and videotape accompanied the presentation.

The paper focused on a project in Massachusetts to restore drainage to the clogged leaching field of a major New England grocery retailer. The owner of the property saved in excess of $1 million in excavation and replacement expense by restoring drainage to the field,. The contractor was Sep-Tech., of Chatham, Mass a CCLS® and BIO-REM E-D dealer.

BIO-REM E-D was the product used to restore the drainage, as there were many environmental concerns. The Board of Health chose BIO-REM E-D over several organic solvents and hydrogen peroxide because it has zero environmental impact. The solvents contain carcinogens and hydrogen peroxide released large concentrations of heavy metals from the soil.

The field lines were excavated and cleaned out with a high-pressure water blaster. The lines were then treated with a shock dosage of BIO-REM E-D. Prior to treatment the system was being pumped daily to keep up with the flow. After treatment the system has had only one routine grease trap maintenance pumpout, and the field lines have handled all the effluent from the buildings without any additional pumping. This methods of treatment cost the owner of the property less than 2% of the lowest bid for replacement of the system.

The paper will be published in the NEWPCA annual publication, due out in the fall of this year. An article outing the treatment of this system will also appear in a future issue of this publication.