Environmental Septage Acceptance Facility

We are in the beginning stages of building a first of its kind in Iowa septage acceptance facility.
Reasons to build: There are several factors that went into our decision to build a first of its kind facility in Iowa.

-Limitations from weather for approved land application

-Limitations of permitted land application sites

-Facility will be available for user convenience

-The need to solve a regional problem

-Improvement of customer service

-Reduction of fuel costs

We have done a great deal of research on a national level and have commissioned some of the best people in the industry to assist in seeing us through this transitional time. This system has been built and permitted in countless locations across the country.

At a dewatering facility, septage is pumped out and hauled to a ‘dedicated’ or ‘independent’ facility for treatment. The treatment usually involves screening, dewatering to separate the liquid from the solids, and may involve the treatment of either the separated liquid or solids or both. Treatment of the liquid may involve a constructed wetland system, or it could be a pre-fabricated plant that is modified to treat septage. Pre-fabricated or “package” STPs are often used at hotels, golf clubs, housing developments and small townships. The separated solids can be disposed at approved landfill sites or further stabilized and used as nutrients at approved Organic Soil Conditioning sites. The ministry is conducting pilots on reed bed filtration and sand filtration which will be used to develop standards for dewatering.

Septage may also be treated or disposed at MOE approved facilities such as:

Municipal STPs that have the capacity and ability to accept the septage

dedicated septage treatment facilities, whether municipally or privately owned, e.g. composting, alkaline stabilization, dewatering trenches

Waste disposal sites approved to accept septage (i.e., landfills and dewatering trenches but not a site which allows land application of untreated septage);

Sites that are approved to receive septage that has been treated by alkaline stabilization.

These facilities require MOE Certificates of Approval which specify the site(s) and volume of septage accepted at the site(s). Operators of these treatment facilities, whether municipal or private, should keep track of available capacity for septage at their facilities, keeping in mind the frequency at which their customers’ septic tanks need pumping out. MOE’s local offices can provide information on Certificates of Approval for approved septage treatment facilities.