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THE HISTORY OF THE CITY'S
TREATMENT OPERATION
By 1889, the City of Bristol had developed into a thriving community with a growing population.Densely populated areas in the center of town were running out of room on individual properties to safely dispose of their own wastewater. On July 25, 1889, the Bristol Herald ran an article entitled, “Bristol and its Sewers – This Perplexing Problem But Faintly Realized”.The articled noted;
“The importance of the sewerage question, which must very soon be solved in some practical way by the people of Bristol, is only faintly realized.The time is fast approaching in the rapid growth of the town when sanitary requirements will force this issue, and the necessity which goes hand in hand with progress will compel a solution of the vexing problem.”
On November 13, 1890, the Bristol Weekly, reported on the front page;
“Bristol’s Proposed Sewerage System, with disposal of sewage by irrigation of land… Contemplates the adoption of the separate system, Track of land selected here has great natural advantages, location is about one-half mile from any valuable property.”
The location selected at the time remains the site of the City’s public wastewater treatment operation since the late 1890’s. The City installed the first dedicated public sewage collection pipes in 1895. By 1905, just ten years later the City had installed over 7 miles of pipe serving the down town area. The City now has over 236 miles of collection system piping. The first facility was a simple system of open drying beds. This consisted of numerous sandy ponds that filtered the solids out of the wastewater from the then small community of Bristol. The small amount of water would filter into the ground similar to the modern household septic system leach fields.
In 1949 under Mayor James P. Casey the City commissioned a new plant to meet the needs of the growing population of Bristol. The facility provided early secondary treatment using trickling filter treatment and chlorine disinfectant. This system was considered the state of the art in it's time, achieving up to 70% removal in the waste water. (Shown below)
In 1969, as the City continued to grow, a second treatment facility was built in the Forestville section of Bristol. The facility was commissioned under Mayor Henry J. Wojtusik. This facility was also a trickling filter treatment system, the last such plant built in Connecticut.
Bristol continued to thrive, growing and developing through the 1970's and 1980's. The City's population reached 60,000 residents bring with it prosperous commercial growth. In the past a number of local industries were permitted by the State to treat and discharge their own process water. Tightening environmental legislation began to require many companies to redirect their process discharge to the City's Treatment system to provide improved treatment.
This continued growth in the City, increased industrial contributions and increasing treatment standards, necessitating the City to commission a new facility in 1987 at its Middle Street site. This facility is an advanced secondary treatment facility, constructed to provide the current state of the art treatment, achieving up to a 94 % treatment efficiency. The Forestville facility was decommissioned and the flow was redirected to the new plant. The plant utilizes a suspended media activated sludge treatment process, that also treats ammonia ( a process know as nitrification), ultraviolet light disinfection, chemical air scrubber and had previously employed the beneficial reuse process of biosolid composting to convert waste into a nutrient rich cultivated soil amendment. The plant is designed to reclaim 10 ¾ million gallons of wastewater every day. The Water Reclamation Facility was commissioned by former Mayor John J. Leone and began operation under John J. Gavin, Director of Public Works, Joseph C. Mercieri, Superintendent and Vincent J. Guarda, Chief Plant Operator. |