FOLEY, Ala. — Officials with Riviera Utilities say the current slowdown in the decades long boom that the City of Foley has experienced has a silver lining of sorts for them.

For one, the utility’s Waste Water Treatment Plant at the end of Greentree Lane looks different from the way it looked just a couple of years ago. Instead of gearing up to add new subdivisions and customers to the utility’s 4,000 or so customer base, the snag in the building boom has given Riviera time to do significant maintenance at the plant and invoke new treatment techniques.

For another, some significant pilot studies are being done that, for one, could result in alternatives to direct discharge of wastewater effluent into waterways such as Wolf Creek.

“We’re not resting on our laurels,” Richard Peterson, superintendent of Gas, Water and Wastewater, said this week during a tour of the treatment plant on Greentree Lane.

Lee Kibler, supervisor of Wastewater and all treatment plant operations, echoes Peterson.

“We’re trying to exceed the Alabama requirements for water quality going into Wolf Creek,” he said.

“We’re not going to stop until we think we can produce (waste)water that has zero impact on the environment.”

While Riviera currently operates under a 2 million gallon permit, the utility is in the permitting process to operate at 3.5 million gallons.

“We’re going through a pilot study process to determine exactly what type of structure and volume tank-wise we’ll need for each of the different processes we’ll have to implement to make that 3.5 million gallons and reduce treatment levels,” Peterson said.

Understandably, folk who take a flush for granted are not likely to comprehend the technicalities involved in wastewater treatment. Take the Salnes filter that has been added to the treatment plant. According to Peterson, the filter removes such items as grit and paper and allows for even more primary screening of the “mixed liquor,” the volume of raw sewage being treated at the plant.

The Salnes filter is just one component in gearing up for the 3.5 million gallon permitting capacity, according to Peterson. Upgraded lift stations for increased flow, an ultraviolet disinfection system and lining of the city “lagoon” are all part of the incorporation process related to increased treatment capacity.

Looking out over “ditches” filled with “mixed liquor,” Kibler said, “It was a huge ordeal to change this whole system over.”

He said it took a year to “retro-fit” the ditches and remove a large draft tube, all at the cost of approximately $1.5 million.

“What we are doing is reducing the total nitrogen that’s being produced and going over into the creek right now, plus reducing power,” Kibler said, adding for emphasis, “a big reduction in power.”

An Insite Meter tells what the mixed liquor concentration is, its temperature and dissolved oxygen content among other variables. Those parameters tell two large “brushes” when to come on or go off, all a part of treating the raw sewage.

Also, as Peterson explains it, a “splitter-box” in the primary screening phase sends three-eighths of the wastewater one way, five-eighths another way, the splitter-box being one of three in use in the country today, according to Kibler.

What most will be able to understand about the process is this statement by Kibler: “We have a really good effluent going into the creeks now.”

But a reuse water pilot study adjacent to the wastewater treatment facility is aimed at “polishing” effluents so they could be used as a resource other than simply going into waterways like Wolf Creek.

Effluents discharge into percolation ponds that are aerated. The idea is that the wetlands are a coarse filter that remove some nitrogen and phosphorus. Also, the natural sand filter is expected to remove bacteria and even heavy metals.

At Barin Field, Riviera is is also studying the effects of rain intensity and volume on impervious surfaces that, in this case, involve use of the old landing field runway. Peterson describes the project as being similar to a “small development,” that being a “parking lot and building” built at the site.

Peterson and Kibler are looking forward to the time when the Class B “sludge” at the lagoon could, through long term treatment and storage, be turned into Class A sludge, which could be used for fertilizer and other purposes.

Riviera Engineer Corley Lauderdale has been responsible for recent work involving lining the 3.5 million gallon capacity lagoon, which has been and continues to be a work in progress, according to Peterson.

“This gives you the buffer you need for a storm event,” Peterson said of the lagoon project.

“When we get this ready, we’re going to use it to keep the balance in the (treatment) plant,” Kibler said.

Improvements made at the lagoon over the past couple of years are estimated at close to $1 million by Peterson and Kibler. Kibler has done most of the electrical work at the lagoon.