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The Kennebec River and Messalonskee Stream have been treating wastewater “naturally” for centuries. Solids would settle to the bottom on the river and decompose, while the dissolved matter in the Wastewater was biodegradable. However, population growth and industrialization during the last 100 years severely overburdened the streams ability to assimilate such wastes. The treatment plant, ironically, uses the same process as Nature to cut down the pollution of the river-only at a more accelerated pace and without putrefying sections of the streams.
The process that we use is called the
activated sludge process. The activated sludge method is a
biological means of treating wastewater used all over the world. It
was discovered at the Lawrence experiment station in Massachusetts
in 1912. The process allows tiny microorganisms normally present in
the wastewater to feed on biodegradable matter. As the
microorganisms grow the digest the biodegradable matter and convert
some of it to carbon dioxide and water, two elements that are not
harmful themselves. The rest of biodegradable matter consumed by
the microorganisms remains in there cell bodies, causing them to
grow even more. When they become more numerous, the microorganisms
are removed from the wastewater, along with much of the waste matter
they were feeding on.
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