If your community has a shallow facultative lagoon, then you need to be aware of how easily sewage lagoon problems can develop. According to the EPA, there are over 7,000 of these lagoons in the United States, and unfortunately, many of them become overrun with sludge and algae every year. When this happens, communities are forced to pay millions of dollars to have the lagoon dredged.
This million-dollar price tag is more than most small rural communities can bear. If your community is in the same boat, there’s no need to despair. A better and less expensive solution exists to prevent these problems from occurring!
The key is to be proactive rather than reactive to prevent million-dollar problems with your lagoon. Rather than ignoring it and waiting around until it becomes smelly and polluted, invest in ongoing lagoon maintenance to keep things from getting out of hand!
But what’s the best method for lagoon maintenance? How can a community like yours maintain a lagoon in a time-saving and cost-effective manner?
The answer is a proven lagoon maintenance system built on groundbreaking nanobubble technology. At Nano Gas™ Environmental, we can provide this solution for communities throughout the United States. In this post, we’ll break down the science behind our technology and explain how it will make life easier for your community.
How Facultative Lagoon Problems Develop
Before we discuss the science behind our lagoon maintenance approach, it’s important you understand how these problems occur.
Your community has a sewage lagoon because it’s an inexpensive and natural way to treat residential wastewater. What makes these ponds so effective is the presence of bacteria. However, problems occur when the bacteria don’t do their job.
Facultative lagoons contain two types of bacteria: aerobic bacteria, which survive on oxygen, and anaerobic bacteria, which do not need oxygen to survive. These bacteria work together to break down the solid and organic waste that enters the lagoon. The aerobic bacteria destroy the waste near the surface of the water, and the anaerobic bacteria take care of the sludge that builds up on the bottom.
These bacteria require certain conditions to thrive and keep the lagoon working properly. Unfortunately, the conditions are hard to maintain in a frequently changing environment. When the climate or circumstances shift, the waste buildup in a lagoon can get out of hand very quickly.
Here are some of the many ways this can happen:
Sunlight and Temperature Fluctuations
Both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria require warm temperatures to live and multiply. Therefore, cold temperatures in the winter or a sudden cool down in summer can prevent the bacteria from getting rid of the waste.
Conversely, extremely hot temperatures and sunlight also cause excessive algae growth in the lagoon. Some algae growth is good because it provides the oxygen aerobic bacteria need to thrive. However, too much algae can disrupt the waste removal process while also giving the lagoon an unsightly swamp-like appearance. Plus, it can create conditions for a hazardous algal bloom (HAB), which can be toxic to children and animals.
Limited Oxygen Availability
Aerobic bacteria need oxygen and food (waste products and sludge) to survive and perform lagoon maintenance. As we mentioned above, oxygen for aerobic bacteria is produced from algae photosynthesis. Unfortunately, oxygen levels aren’t always abundant enough to keep the bacteria happy.
pH Level Imbalance
It’s also very easy for the pH levels in a lagoon to become too high or low, which stops bacteria from working. An overabundance of algae makes the pH too high, and an absence of oxygen or an excessive amount of organic matter makes the pH too low.
A Change in the Amount of Effluent
The bacteria can also become overwhelmed when the lagoon takes on a sudden increase in waste. This often happens when a community grows in population and the bacteria can no longer break down all the waste the community is producing. Excessive sludge builds up on the bottom of the lagoon and strains the pond’s capacity as a result.
Excessive algae growth is a clear sign of an unhealthy lagoon.
The Problems with Traditional Sewage Lagoon Maintenance
As you can see, the biggest problems that occur within a lagoon happen at a microscopic level. Unfortunately, the traditional methods currently available to communities for lagoon maintenance don’t do much to address those scientific concerns.
Most of the traditional recommendations you’ll find for taking care of a lagoon involve preventative measures like mowing the berms and keeping dangerous chemicals out of the water. While these are good rules to follow, they do little to support bacteria production within the lagoon.
Moreover, some suggested maintenance techniques can damage lagoons. For example, you will sometimes see communities try to deal with algae overgrowth by killing the algae with chemicals. This practice is dangerous because it can drastically alter conditions within the lagoon and ultimately lead to more sludge buildup than was previously present.
Unfortunately, these traditional methods don’t prevent million-dollar dredging from becoming necessary. To truly make a difference for your lagoon, you need a more scientifically nuanced approach.
The Better Lagoon Maintenance Technique
At Nano Gas™ Environmental, our lagoon maintenance solution can directly support the bacteria that keep wastewater treatment running smoothly. We do this through automated monitoring and nanobubble production. Let’s take a closer look at how each of these parts of the process works:
Real-Time Monitoring
We set up automated technology to do real-time dissolved oxygen monitoring within a lagoon. This allows us to quickly detect when conditions become less than ideal for either aerobic bacterial action.
Nanobubble Production
Of course, it’s one thing to have the right levels of bacteria in your lagoon, but those bacteria also need to be alive and well. We keep bacteria healthy with our patented nanobubble solutions.
Using our automated nanobubble production unit, we’re able to inject billions of tiny gas bubbles into a lagoon. We fill these gas bubbles with oxygen to help the bacteria. Because the bubbles are so small (less than 350 nanometers), they don’t rise and stay suspended in the lagoon for a long time without popping. Instead, they spread throughout the lagoon and float there, releasing the gas those bacteria desperately need.
Our systems are uniquely capable of performing this task in dirty lagoon waters because, unlike nanobubbles produced by other companies, ours don’t use membranes. Most other systems produce nanobubbles using membranes that tend to clog and become ineffective in polluted wastewater ponds.
Instead, our automated nanobubble generators continually supply lagoons with the oxygen they need to make the natural wastewater treatment process work.
How Our Solution Makes Your Life Easier
Your community will benefit in many ways from our residential sewage lagoon maintenance technology. For starters, our ongoing maintenance will save your community a lot of money. Without our maintenance, your lagoon will likely become overwhelmed with algae and sludge and need an expensive solution like million-dollar dredging. In contrast, our maintenance system only costs a small fraction of what you would pay if you let the problem get out of hand.
Because our system is fully automated, you can also set it and forget it. You won’t have to worry about any unexpected surprises down the road like the EPA showing up at your door and ordering you to clean your lagoon.
Your lagoon also won’t cause any embarrassing and environmentally hazardous problems for your community. When lagoons become overwhelmed, they smell awful and release dangerous methane into the air. They also become uninhabitable for local wildlife. But our solution will allow you and your family to breathe easier and enjoy a healthier environment.
Get Help Maintaining Your Facultative Lagoon
Proactive, science-based maintenance is crucial to prevent costly sewage lagoon issues. Our nanobubble technology provides an affordable, effective solution for lagoon maintenance. With this system in place, your community can save money, reduce environmental risks and enjoy a cleaner, healthier lagoon.
Interested in our automated technology for your wastewater treatment needs? At Nano Gas™ Environmental, we work closely with communities across the country to provide custom lagoon system maintenance solutions.
Please call (832) 903-5961 or email info@ngtenergy.com to discuss how we can help you.
