Stabilization  Ponds Receiving Potato
Wastes with Domestic Sewage
G. 0. FOSSUM, Professor of Civil Engineering
A. M. COOLEY, Professor of Chemical Engineering
E. D. WAHL, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering
University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, North Dakota
This paper presents data collected over a 40-month period on the operating
characteristics of stabilization ponds, or lagoons, for two municipalities in northern North Dakota. Both of these cases concern small communities whose sewage
disposal facilities have been severely overloaded due to industrial wastes.
HISTORY
The stabilization pond principle has been used in the United States since
fairly early in the 20th century. However, very little published literature is found
on stabilization ponds until the mid 1940s. Rather extensive studies have been
made on stabilization ponds in the Dakotas and suggested design criteria have
been presented (1). Generally, these studies were conducted on ponds receiving
primarily domestic sewage. Any industrial waste present was incidental and occurred in such small amounts that it constituted a relatively small portion of the
pollutional load. The first "engineered" stabilization pond in the Dakotas appeared at Maddock, North Dakota, in 1949. The use of ponds grew rapidly and
today approximately 150 such stabilization ponds are in use in North Dakota alone,
ranging in size from single cells of a few acres to multiple cells totaling 640 acres
at Grand Forks, North Dakota. The use of stabilization ponds for domestic sewage
and industrial wastes has increased in other areas of the United States also so that
many states now accept this as a method of treatment (2).
The Red River of the north forms the boundary between North Dakota and
Minnesota. The Red River Valley is the bottom oi ancient glacial Lake Agassiz
and consists of very fertile farm land for a width of 40 to 50 miles. The northern
part of the valley has become a large potato-producing area and in recent years
several potato processing plants for producing flakes, chips, starch, and flour nave
been established. Some of these plants have located in small cities using stabilization ponds and have caused heavy loadings of organic industrial wastes. The
loadings have been so heavy that during the plant operation, which is seasonal,
the domestic sewage constitutes a very minor portion of the total organic loading.
This is the situation which has existed at Park River and Grafton, North
Dakota, during the last few years. Park River is a city of slightly less than 2, 000
population, and it is served by a primary lagoon of approximately 25 acres followed by a secondary lagoon of about ten acres. The schematic layout of these
lagoons is shown in Figure 1. These lagoons were put into operation in 1955. A
flake plant which uses the lye-peeling process is located at Park River. Most of
the water used by the plant is well water which has a total solids of about 5, 000
ppm.
The city of Grafton has a population of slightly under 6, 000 people. Two
processing plants are located at Grafton; one is a flake plant using the steam -
peeling process and the other is a starch plant. The lagoons serving Grafton are
shown schematically in Figure 2 and have an area of 70 acres each. The influent
piping is arranged so that the lagoons can be operated in series with either lagoon
as the primary, or they can be run in parallel. These lagoons went into operation
in 1957.
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