Evening star., 1937-07-29
BY NELSON NJ. SHEPARD.

Washington's s4,125,0 900 sewage dis
posal plant, built at Blue Plains in
answer to more than two decades of
Potomac River pollution studies, was
this week for the first time, full year
behind the original contract schedule.
1t may not be fully completed for
another seven months
The cause of more official headaches
than possibly any other recent public
project IN the District, the new dis
posal plant starts test operat tions under
fresh difficulties Even before the
testing process began, sanitary en-
gineers were deep in an investigation
to determine the effect on its eff
cheney from prospective slaughter
house waste.
They had before them Public
Health Service report indicating that
heavy overload of sewage from the
proposed Adolf Gobel operations in
Benning might necessitate additional
expenditures to provide more adequate
protection from pollution. Under the
worse possible conditions, this would
entail cost of several million dollars.
Designed to handle from lis 900 900
to l30,000000 gallons of sewage daily.
the Blue Plains plant is now operating
at less than one-fourth of capacity.
A single condemned pump is at work
on part-time schedule. discharging
no more than 26,ooo,oOO gallons of
treated sewage daily into the Potomac
across from Alexandria.
Four Pumps Rejected.
This condition was caused by the
engineers rejecting the four pumps
previously ordered as unsuitable To
avoid delaying operations for nearly
eight months, they rented one of the
condemned pumps so the plant could
operate on a test basis.
Meanwhile. the New Jersey avenue
pumping station, which sends sewage
to Blue Plains where it goes through
the lntricacies of digestive treatment
Is being changed from steam operation
to electrification. Work started yes
terday and the completed job will cost
s557000. There will be no inter-
ference with pumping during the
process. It is to be finished by
June 30, 1898.
Bids will be opened next Wednesday
at the District Building on the four
new pumps for the Blue Plains plant.
Considerable time will elapse be-
tween the awarding OF the contract
and the final pump installation. Be-
cause OF these and other difficulties,
Administrator Ickes, who is financing
the project through a Federal grant
and loan, recently extended the time
for 1t to be in full operation until
April 80, 1888
There will be ample opportunity in
the interim to test the efficiency of
operations and train the personnel.
It will be possible to get enough
sludge, 1t was said, to try out the
elutriation plant, one of the largest
installations Of its kind. This process
was said to wash the sludge after
1t is digested so that 1t can be de-
watered more efficiently.
The Blue Plains plant was designed
to give only primary treatment by
plain sedimentation, leaving for de-
termination in the future the ques-
ton as to type and extent Of secondary
treatment. This decision was con-
CURED in jointly by the District Com
missioners and by the P. w. A. in
November, 1884, because of the ex-
cessive 100000 cost of a complete
sewage system. Under the agree
ment the cost of the preliminary
plant was fixed at $4,125,OOO
Industrial Waste Unexpected.
Since all studies Of Potomac River
pollution since 1914 had stressed the
fact that Washington had no large
industrial waste with which to cope,
the need for secondary treatment was
not seen at this time. When the
Blue Plains plant is in full operation,
1t will reduce suspended solids by
approximately so per cent and reduce
the oxygen demand OF the sewage by
80 per cent. That amount OF purifl-
cation was expected to be sufficient
to make the Potomac River suitable
for fish life and prevent Objectionable
pollution.
Recently, report Of Surgeon Gen.
eral Thomas Parran of the Public
Health Service, pointing to the posi-
bic overlooking from slaughter house
waste If the Gobel plant is operated
al rull capacity. threw some doubt on
the extsnt to which the Potomac will
be protected from pollution. Sani-
tary engineers at the District Build
ing, who have the matter under >on-
sideration. have not reported their
conclusions.
Corporation Counsel Elwood H.
Seal also uncovered q 39-year-o old
apti-pollution law affecting the dis
charge Of industrial waste into the