BOZEMAN, Mont. \u2014 Wastewater may not smell like roses, but a new lift station serving the Riverside community is helping ensure it\u2019s properly filtered and treated.<\/p>\n
Shawn Kohtz, utilities director for the city of Bozeman and an expert in wastewater systems, has seen the city\u2019s operation grow significantly over the years. Kohtz graduated with an engineering degree and previously built water treatment plants. Now, he oversees Bozeman\u2019s Water Reclamation Facility, which processes millions of gallons daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time of year, somewhere around 7\u00bd to 8 million gallons a day,\u201d Kohtz said.<\/p>\n
That load recently increased after Riverside sought help from Bozeman for its failing wastewater treatment system.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2011, the state DEQ had identified problems with the old treatment system here at Riverside,\u201d Kohtz said.<\/p>\n
Built in the 1970s, Riverside\u2019s wastewater system relied on a lagoon system, where water flowed by gravity into large ponds. Over time, those lagoons began to leak. For more than 15 years, residents worked to have the community annexed into the city of Bozeman so they could access its modern treatment facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city\u2019s water reclamation facility really treats wastewater to a very high level \u2014 one of the best in the state,\u201d Kohtz said.<\/p>\n
WATCH: See how wastewater makes its way to the treatment facility<\/p>\n
Riverside Water Treatment<\/p>\n
As of Friday, the new lift station is fully operational, sending Riverside\u2019s wastewater to Bozeman\u2019s treatment plant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really excited about it because it means a lot in terms of water quality,\u201d Kohtz said.<\/p>\n
Kohtz explained how the system works. Raw sewage from Riverside flows into an underground tank. Once full, the tank pumps sewage into the lift station, which sends it down the road to Bozeman\u2019s treatment plant.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we are walking up to what\u2019s called the secondary treatment process,\u201d Kohtz said during a tour.<\/p>\n
This mechanical system \u2014 a step up from the lagoon design \u2014 might appear to be a pool of murky water, but it\u2019s actually a microbial mass treating the waste.<\/p>\n
After filtration, solid waste is removed and eventually sent to the Logan landfill. Treated water flows back into the East Gallatin River, a popular recreation spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople love to recreate on the East Gallatin,\u201d Kohtz said. \u201cAnd of course, that water flows down to communities downstream of us. They use that as their drinking water sources. So we want to make sure that\u2019s as clean as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOZEMAN, Mont. \u2014 Wastewater may not smell like roses, but a new lift station serving the Riverside community…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-620470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}