The South Monmouth Regional Sewerage Authority wastewater treatment plant, located in West Belmar, Monmouth County, won this year's Regional O&M Excellence award in the Medium - Secondary Treatment category. The plant has a design capacity of 9.1 MGD and an average daily flow of 5.5 MGD. The unit processes employed at the plant include preliminary treatment, primary and secondary clarification, two stage high rate trickling filters, disinfection and polishing ponds. Sludge is transported off-site to Mount Holly SA. The facility's effluent discharges to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Authority's plant has reported no NJPDES permit effluent violations for the past two years and has achieved percent removals for CBOD and SS consistently in the mid-90s.

The plant, equipped with two 186 foot diameter trickling filter towers, operated efficiently and met the required effluent parameters from plant start-up in 1977 until the 1990s when periodic and cyclical ponding began to occur. Initial investigations revealed that the total organic loading was excessive for the rock media utilized. Clearly, the solution to this problem would be a major, unanticipated capital investment for the Authority that would require an innovative retrofit design. Ultimately, a PVC cross flow structured sheet media was selected for the retrofit.

In October 1998, the rock washing process began for one trickling filter. Using in-house staff, the Authority was able to remove and recycle, through a joint venture with the Monmouth County Reclamation Center, approximately 190,000 cubic feet of spent media. Final design of the retrofit was completed in December 1998, construction contracts were awarded in January 1999, and the retrofit was completed in April 1999.

Concurrent with design, the Authority's staff had completed its design and fabrication of Biomonitoring Observation Towers, which were installed during the course of the media replacement contract. These towers have provided much needed and readily available culture sampling points at various depths and locations, easy access to conduct microscopic examinations, a means to observe the underdrain conditions, and a way to easily evaluate the potential for filamentous growth. The Authority has undeniably "placed it mark" on this industry with the success of this project. The retrofit of the remaining trickling filter is underway.

Congratulations to the Authority and to each member of the plant's staff for achieving outstanding wastewater treatment.