Operation of an Anaerobic Pond on
Hog Abattoir Wastewater
CHARLES F. NILES, Vice President of Engineering
HENRY B. STEEG AND ASSOCIATES, INC.
Indianapolis, Indiana
HAROLD P. GORDON, Superintendent
Wastewater Treatment Plant
Logansport, Indiana
INTRODUCTION
This paper will describe the development of design for an anaerobic pond for
pretreatment of the wastewater from an abattoir , design criteria and details of the
anaerobic pond and the operating techniques being used in treating the effluent from
the anaerobic pond before discharge to the river. Included will be some information
on operating results and labor requirements and power consumptions therefore.
In the early fall of 1965 Wilson and Company were evaluating several locations
for a new hog abattoir. One of the locations being actively investigated and evaluated
was near the city of Logansport, Indiana.
The city of Logansport was requested to estimate the cost of installation and
cost of operation for the treatment of the wastewater from the hog abattoir planned
by Wilson and Company. The industry estimated that the flow would be 800,000 gal
per day with a peak rate of 1400 gal per min. It was estimated that this wastewater
would contain 8,000 pounds of BOD and 6,650 pounds of suspended solids per day.
This wastewater would be received from the killing and processing of 400 hogs per hr
on a one shift kill. The estimate indicated that the 800,000 gal of wastewater would
be discharged over a period of approximately 10 hr .
The existing sewage treatment plant at Logansport, which was constructed in
1959, was designed to provide 62 per cent BOD removal for a population equivalent
of 29,500 people. The average dry weather design flow for primary treatment only is
5.31 MGD of which 2.44 MGD would receive activated sludge treatment.
It was obvious from the very outset that it was not economical to treat the
8,000 pounds of BOD and the 800,000 gal of flow through the existing sewage
treatment plant. Discussions with the engineers of Wilson and Company together
with Dr. Jesse Dietz, who was retained by Wilson and Company, as a consultant,
indicated the desirability of considering the use of an anaerobic pond as a pretreatment device before discharge of the wastewater to the city sewage treatment plant.
The company had had experience with anaerobic ponds at Cherokee, Iowa. This
experience was believed to be applicable to the conditions that would occur at
Logansport, Indiana. Using the experience from this facility, preliminary estimates
were made for a pond system at Logansport.
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