TM 5-814-8
Table 5-4 Cent'd)
4.
Inadequate Understanding of Wastewater Treatment - This factor
is distinguished from Factor #1 in that it is defined as a
deficiency in the level of knowledge that individual staffs at
various facilities exhibit concerning wastewater treatment
fundamentals.
On occasion, an operator's primary concern is
simply to keep the equipment functional rather than to learn
how the equipment relates to the processes and their control.
This factor adversely affected performance at 50 plants and was
the leading cause of poor performance at nine facilities.
5.
Technical Guidance - Improper technical guidance includes mis-
information from authoritative sources
including design
engineers, state and Federal regulatory agency personnel, equip-
ment suppliers, operator training staff and other plant
operators. At any one plant, improper technical guidance was
observed to come from more than one source.
This factor was
ranked as the most severe deficiency at seven plants, and was an
adverse factor at 47 facilities.
6.
Sludge Wasting Capability- This factor was ranked as the lead-
ing cause of poor performance at nine facilities and was a
factor at 43 plants studied. This factor includes inadequate
sludge handling facilities and the inability to measure and
control the volume of waste sludge. Either one or both of these
conditions was noted as having a major impact on performance at
several plants.
Process Controllability - The lack of controllability was
7.
evident in the inability to adequately measure and control flow
streams such as return sludge flow and trickling filter recir-
culation rates. While measurement and control of return acti-
vated sludge flow were the most frequent reasons for rating
this factor, process controllability was not a major cause of
poor performance.
It prevented an operator from "tuning" his
treatment system to the varying demands which were placed on it
This factor
by hydraulic and organic loading fluctuations.
occurred at 55 plants and was the leading factor at three facil-
ities.
5-16
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