Pilot Mechanical Aeration Studies of the
Jackson River in Covington, Virginia
OLIVER B. BURNS, JR., Water and Air Conservation Administrator
West Virginia Pulp and Paper
Covington, Virginia
JOHN P. ST. JOHN, Sanitary Engineer
Hydroscience, Inc.
Leonia, New Jersey
DONALD J. O'CONNOR, Professor
Manhattan College
Riverdale, New York
INTRODUCTION
The program for developing an adequate pollution abatement program for the
Covington Mill of West Virginia Pulp and Paper has undergone many changes during the past several years. The installation of an activated sludge plant in 1955
was the initial effort to make large improvements in Jackson River quality below
the mill. Subsequent modifications to the original plant have been made at regular intervals (1) and resulting improvements in river quality have been noted.
However, the activated sludge plant is now operating in an efficiency range of
85 to 90 per cent and it is beginning to be somewhat difficult to envision what
supplementary treatment systems may Be installed to improve the observed operations. Furthermore, after an assimilation capacity study (2) was completed on the
receiving stream in 1962, it became evident that the BOD remaining in the
secondary effluent could, at times of drought flow conditions, exceed the ability
of the Jackson River to assimilate the waste and still maintain adequate quantities
of DO.
Although secondary treatment generally proves to be adequate in most circumstances, the periodic and severe drought flows which occur in the Jackson
River result in marginal DO concentration in pooled areas. Nuisance conditions
sometimes are developed. As a result, pilot mechanical aeration units were installed in the stream at the location of the low flow minimum DO concentration.
The purpose of this procedure was to supplement natural reaeration and to prevent the development of the periodic nuisance conditions. Positioning of the
aeration units at the location of minimum DO facilitates maximum oxygen transfer and the more precise evaluation of performance characteristics.
HYDROLOGY OF THE JACKSON RIVER
Flow
The Jackson River rises in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia and Virginia and flows in a south easterly direction. Downstream from its confluence
with the Cowpasture River, it becomes the James River and eventually enters the
Atlantic Ocean at Norfolk, Virginia. The Jackson River above Covington, Virginia,  encompasses a small drainage area of about 440 sq mi.   The water is of
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