Wastewater Treatment - How to Avoid Process Complacency

Process complacency is the condition in which the owners and/or operators of an existing wastewater treatment system do not question the effectiveness of that process. In other words, you become accustomed to how it works, what it produces, and why that process was chosen originally. This article explains why process complacency is a poor operational practice and provides guidance on how to avoid the condition.

When it was new, your wastewater treatment system was just what your facility needed and has worked great since. Sound familiar? This may be the case, until something significant happens; something like: new environmental regulations, non-compliance violation notice, broken equipment, and operating cost increases.

Just because the system seems to be running smoothly and you aren’t seeing any red flags, doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. There is likely some room for shaving costs associated with its operation and maintenance, improving the water quality (which can lead to possible reuse opportunities), system component consolidation, and perhaps alternative technologies that will save money, energy, and labor while increasing the system’s performance.

One of the biggest risks you may encounter with process complacency is that you will end up with a full system replacement. After a system is ignored for a period of time (aside from routine maintenance and operation), something major will occur eventually. These events cause you to look closely at the system to evaluate how it’s performing and why the failure occurred. At that point, you may find there are multiple issues that when piled together seem like a very large project to tackle. In a lot of cases, it would seem easier and more cost effective to just replace the whole aging system with something newer and better. Alternatively, while you may want to replace the entire system to avoid tackling multiple issues, the reality is that you may end up having to work around the issues for a while, simply because you cannot get the funding approval for the replacement project.

If, however, you were tracking the system’s performance on a regular basis and making small improvements over time, you may not need to replace the system until your production outgrows it or it simply ages out.

Here are some tips on how to avoid system complacency:

• Hire professional operators.
• Have a relationship with your water treatment equipment vendor
• Buy from a solutions provider (as opposed to buying individual pieces and assembling yourself).
• Take advantage of service visits from your vendor.
• Schedule regular system audits.
• Send your operators to training.
• Attend water treatment conferences to learn about new technologies.
• Find out what other companies in your industry are doing for water treatment via case studies and industry conferences.
• Take advantage of pilot test systems for any proposed system changes.

Further, you should always investigate production changes to determine how the wastewater treatment system will be impacted. Will this change be long term or short term? To address the change, will the system require more chemicals? Is this an entirely new waste stream, added contaminants, or a higher concentration of existing contaminants? You will have to determine the best approach for handling the situation; that could be as simple as upping chemical dosing. On the other hand, upping the dosage could cause other problems downstream, so the solution may be to add additional filtration. The point is to investigate all possibilities so that you implement the best solution for the long term.

You should also consider adding automation features to your wastewater treatment system (retrofitting services are provided by some vendors). These can reduce labor time, provide valuable data about the system’s performance, and can even eliminate possible downtime while your operators manually update the process to deal with production changes. These systems also eliminate the risk of non-compliance during a process adjustment period.

No matter what your wastewater treatment solution is, there is usually an alternative to consider. You should reconsider on a recurring basis whether the current solution is still meeting your needs or not. Don’t let process complacency make decisions for your business. Pay close attention to your assets and address concerns proactively. 

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