Aerator Replacement

Jordan has one 300,000 gallon pond and one 150,000 gallon pond. They had two 7.5 HP aerators in pond one and one 7.5 HP unit in pond two. Their incoming BOD was 3,500 mg/l and their flow averaged 6,000 gallons per day. They had built up 14″ of heavy sludge in pond one and wanted to reduce their energy consumption.

We replaced the three 7.5 HP units with three 3 HP units and began microbial treatment on September 2, 2009. At that time we measured the sludge depth in 6 locations. The average sludge depth was 14″. During harvest we added one 3 HP aerator to keep up with the increased load. The winery had planned on dredging pond one before we installed, but wasn’t able to. By November 2009 we had reduced the average sludge depth by 2″ to 12″, so the winery decided to use the aerators and microbes to reduce the sludge, assuming that this would be a far less expensive solution than dredging. In February, 2010, we took sludge depth readings and found that the average sludge depth had decreased to 10″. A June 2010 sludge reading showed 8″ in three locations and 5″ in one location.