The City of Atlantic’s three and a half-year old, $12.3-million wastewater treatment plant held up well during the last major rain producing event on May 26^th. Some parts of the City saw in excess of 7-inches of rain that day, causing flooding on streets, and in residential basements as well as businesses.

Wastewater Superintendent Tim Snyder told the City Council during their meeting Wednesday, prior to the May event, December 2015 was the last time the plant dealt with a significant amount of water coming into its 7-million gallon holding tank used for cleaning up the water before it’s discharged into the river. During that month, the plant processed 72-million gallons of storm water runoff.

He says in May, they took in over 80-million gallons, which is one of the highest flows that’s gone through the facility since it was upgraded in 2012. When it was constructed, officials say peak flow capacity for the facility would be 15-million gallons per day. Snyder says the day after the deluge last month, the plant took in 7-million gallons in one day. At least half that flow went into the equalization basin located across the street from the plant. Heavy flows continued for several days afterward, causing the EQ basin to briefly overflow during the weekend of May 28^th-29^th

Tim said their computer calculated 60-thousand gallons were processed, but because there was a “glitch” in the calculations, he estimated there was closer to 600-thousand gallons processed into the EQ basin. He said he’s since spoken with engineers and equipment vendors to see if there is a way to make the plant more efficient to push the water out faster. It turns out they found ways to do just that.

There were also some system adjustments made to certain pieces of equipment, and a new policy written on how to deal with heavy storm water flow, given the adjustments made through system tweaks and fixes.