Design and Early Operating
Experience of Activated Sludge Plant for
Combined Treatment of
Pulp, Paper,and Domestic Wastes
FRANCIS P. COUGHLAN, JR., Associate
Hazen and Sawyer Engineers
New York, New York
and
ANTON E. SPARR, Superintendent
Waste Treatment Facilities
Upper Potomac River Commission
Westernport, Maryland
This paper describes the design and early operating experiences of the
waste treatment plant constructed by the Upper Potomac River Commission at
Westernport, Maryland. Waste treatment was initiated in February 1960 before construction was complete, but it was early summer before the plant went
into full operation. The plant treats kraft pulping wastes from the Luke mill
of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company and the domestic sewage from
Luke, Maryland. Sewers and a pumping station are being constructed to bring
sewage from Westernport, Maryland, and Piedmont, West Virginia, into the
plant. Luke, Westernport, and Piedmont are referred to locally as the "Tri-
Towns."
Westernport is on the North Branch Potomac River, some 25 miles southwest of Cumberland, Maryland.
In 1957, the Maryland General Assembly extended the authority of the
Upper Potomac River Commission to include the construction, maintenance,
and operation of facilities for the treatment and disposal of industrial wastes
and sewage in the Westernport area. The commission had been created in
in 1935 to regulate the flow in the North Branch Potomac River and to build
and operate Savage River Dam which is located a few miles above Western-
port. This dam, together with the smaller Stony River Dam built by the West
Virginia Pulp and Paper Company in 1913, permits regulation of the North
Branch Potomac' River discharge to not less than 60 mgd at Westernport.
Without regulation, summer flows would be as low as 20 mgd.
Prior to the construction of the waste treatment plant at Westernport and
a clarifier serving the Luke paper mill, sanitary conditions in the North Branch
were poor. Stream flows were insufficient to carry off the organic wastes
from the mill and the Tri-Towns without partial or complete depletion of
oxygen. The river continues to be subject to acid-mine drainage from the
extensive coal mining operations above Westernport, but these are neutralized
by the alkaline mill wastes. It is evident that without the mill wastes, acid
conditions would prevent fishlife.
As part of the current enlargement of the production facilities of the Luke
mill, the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company included plans for suitable
solids and BOD removal facilities.   A clarifier was constructed at the mill to
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