Treatment Results
Hite Creek Tertiary Waste Treatment Plant
Louisville, Kentucky
J. WILEY FINNEY, JR., President
Howard K. Bell Consulting Engineers, Inc.
Lexington, Kentucky
INTRODUCTION
The decision of the Ford Motor Company to construct a truck assembly plant in
northeast Jefferson County, Kentucky adjacent to the City of Louisville, made it necessary
for the Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District to provide waste
treatment facilities to serve the area. District officials decided to construct a plant which
would serve the Hite Creek drainage area south of Interstate 71 by gravity and any future
development north of 1-71 by a pumping station and force main.
There were no concentrated residential developments in the drainage basin, so the
construction of waste treatment facilities would provide an impetus for residential
development. The plant was planned for ultimate expansion to serve the full development
of the 3,430 acres drainage area, and the first stage of construction would have a capacity of
about one-third the ultimate. The designed first stage facilities would provide treatment
capacity for the Ford Plant and a residential population of about 9,000 persons.
The geography of the area dictates that the effluent be discharged into Hite Creek, a
tributary of the South Fork of Harrods Creek, which joins the main Harrods Creek and
flows into the Ohio River. The treatment plant site is about eight miles from the Ohio River
by stream. Harrods Creek enters the Ohio almost five miles upstream from the Louisville
Water Company Intake.
In view ofthe fact that recreational standards had been tentatively set for the portion of
the Ohio River upstream from Louisville which receives this treated waste, the Kentucky
Water Pollution Control Commission and the Louisville and Jefferson County Health
Department set the following criteria to be met by the treatment processes:
"Complete treatment, including chlorination of the effluent to meet
the following minimum standards:
(a) 85 percent removal of BOD
(b) 95 percent removal of suspended solids
(c) The effluent shall not contain more than 5,000 coliform organisms per 100 milliliters."
All the criteria except suspended solids removal could have been met by utilizing the
activated sludge process with chlorination, but it was felt that consistent removal of
suspended solids to 95 per cent could not be accomplished without some type of third stage
treatment. The treatment processes selected consisted of the completely mixed activated
sludge process, mixed media filtration of the secondary clarifier effluent and final
chlorination. Aerobic digesters were designed for treatment of primary sludge and waste
activated sludge. Sludge thickening by air flotation and vacuum filtration on a continuous
cloth belt filter were included for sludge concentration and dewatering.
WASTE CHARACTERISTICS
The initial stage ofthe plant was designed for a 24 hour wet weather flow of 2.19 MGD
made up of 1.27 MGD from the Ford Plant and 0.92 MGD from residences.
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