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Waste Water Treatment Plant
  

387 Harden Street
Oneida, NY 13421
Phone:  (315) 363-4860
FAX:    (315) 363-4883

Sanitary Sewer Collection System

The City’s collection system is comprised of over 40 miles of gravity sewer and approximately four (4) miles of force main.  The majority of the collection system is within the City’s inside taxation district.  In 1995 the collection system was extended westward along Upper Lenox Avenue to serve the Wal*Mart Plaza.  In 2003 the collection system was extended southward to serve the City’s new developed Business Park.  Also in 1995 the Town of Verona constructed a collection system from the Turning Stone Casino and Resort southward along NYS Route 365 to Sconondoa Road that discharges to the City’s collection system at Sconondoa Street near Oneida Creek. 

Pump Stations

The N. Main Street Pump Station serves the City’s western half.  Additionally, smaller pump stations are located at Garfield Avenue, Stone Street, Lenox Avenue, the Village of the White Pines, and the Oneida Indian Nation Territory.

Treatment Plant

Wastewater Treatment\Solids Removal

In 2008 construction of a new $8.9M preliminary and primary treatment plant was completed that replaced a smaller plant constructed in 1962. 

At the Influent Building, a mechanical bar screen removes larger solid materials.  Wastewater is then pumped by force main and lifted 56 feet in elevation to the top level of the Solids Handling Building where it then gravity flows through a non-mechanical vortex unit designed to remove smaller, settleable, inorganic material [“grit”].  Wastewater then gravity flows to two Primary Clarifers where mostly organic solid materials settle that are then drawn off to a holding tank. 

Wastewater continues to gravity flow to the Secondary Treatment Building constructed in 1983.  Initially  wastewater flows to the first set of two Aeration Tanks operating in parallel where oxygen breathing microbes consume suspended organic material [BOD5].  Additionally liquid iron salts are added to the Aeration Tanks to remove phosphorous by chemical reaction.  From the Aeration Tanks waste water gravity flows to the first set of two Secondary Clarifiers where the “satisfied” microbes settle, phosphorous precipitates, and both are drawn off to the holding tank already containing the organic matter from the preliminary and primary treatment process. 

Waste water then gravity flows to a second set of two Aeration Tanks where a different breed of microbes consume nitrogen in suspension that then settles in a second set of two Secondary Clarifiers to also be drawn off to the holding tank. 

Wastewater then gravity flows to the Chlorine Contact Tank where during the period May 15 through October 15 chlorine is used to kill fecal coliform.  Chlorination is not required from October 16 through May 14.  From the Chlorine Contact Tank, the clean effluent water then gravity flows to Oneida Creek or is pumped for irrigation use as discussed below.   

Solids Handling

Inorganic solids removed by the mechanical bar screen and non-mechanical vortex unit are collected and hauled by truck to the Madison County Landfill.

Organic solids are pumped from the holding tank to a Dissolved Air Flotation [DAF] Thickener unit to which a polymer is added to assist in the dewatering process.  From the DAF solids are pumped to one of four Digester Tanks maintained at a target temperature of 96o Fahrenheit.  In the Digester Tanks anaerobic [do not require oxygen] microorganisms decompose the organic matter killing pathogens.  The digestion process also generates a biogas (approximately 70% methane) that can be burned in either an 85 KW co-generation unit or boilers used to heat the digisters, or the plant, or both.  After an approximate 30 day digestion cycle, the remaining decomposed material, now significantly reduced in volumn, is dewatered via a Belt Filter Press and then hauled by truck to the Madison County Landfill. 

Irrigation Water

In 1995 the City of Oneida and the Turning Stone Casino entered into a contract whereby some of the Plant’s effluent water would be drawn from the Chlorine Contact Tank, tertiary filtered, and pumped via  force main to a pond at the Turning Stone Casio and Resort.  Water is drawn from the pond and used for irrigation purposes on the Resort’s golf courses.  All expenses to construct the system were, and all operations and maintenance expenses are, borne by the Resort.  The City’s benefit is that all water and any remaining suspended solids conveyed to the Resort is credited against the City’s New York State Department of Environmental Conservation State Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit limits. 

Laboratory

The treatment plant operates an on-site laboratory that is accredited by the Environmental Laboratory Approval Program of the NYS Department of Health.

Statistics

      Design Flow:                      3.75 MGD

      Daily Peak Flow:               10.0 MGD

City of Oneida Residential, Business and Commercial Sewer Rates

Fixed Rate:      $5.50 per calender quarter

Unit Charge:    $2.50 per 100 cu. ft of metered water consumption.

Industrial Sewer Rates

The H.P. Hood Dairy in Oneida, NY is the treatment plant’s largest industrial user, contributing approximately 40% of the daily BOD5 load, conveyed in +/- 5% of the plant’s design flow.  Hood’s sewer rate is calculated by using an Industrial Sewer Use Formula that is based on the concentration of solids in its wastewater discharge.

Although not an industry, the Town of Verona’s wastewater also exhibits high strength waste characteristics and so its charges are also calculated using the Industrial Sewer Use Formula.

Waste Water Treatment Plant Staff

Kyle Colclough, Chief Operator
Jonathan Edwards, Operator
Robert Gleasman, Operator
Rennie Carroll, Operator
Robert Pryor. Laboratory Director
Myron Thurston, Operator
Dave Niles, Operator
Leonard Young, Maintenance Mechanic
John Plows, Maintenance Mechanic
Dennis Laurin, Laborer