Connellsville Municipal Authority

Wastewater Treatment Plant

The Connellsville Municipal Authority Wastewater Treatment Plant is a 3.24 million gallon a day secondary treatment activated sludge facility. Wastewater is brought to the facility through over forty miles of underground sewer lines and one pumping station located on the west side of town. As the raw wastewater enters the facility, it first passes through a preliminary treatment process where rags, grit and other debris are removed and hauled to the landfill for disposal. Next the water flows into the main wet well where it is pumped up to the beginning of the primary treatment stage. In the primary treatment the water enters into four primary clarifier tanks, where the velocity of the wastewater is slowed sufficiently to allow settleable matter to drop to the bottom of the tanks. This material is removed to a separate treatment process. Greases and other floatables are also removed from the primary clarifiers.

The wastewater now enters into to the secondary treatment. The secondary treatment of the wastewater is a biological process. The flow enters into four aeration tanks which are supplied with large amounts of air. The air in the aeration tanks speed the growth of helpful microorganisms, which consume the incoming harmful organic matter in the wastewater. After flow passes through secondary treatment, it is split among two final clarifiers where gravity allows solid material to settle. The cleaned wastewater from these tanks goes on to disinfection in two contact tanks where chlorine gas is used to kill pathogens before the water is discharged to the Youghiohgeny River.

Solids collected from various stages of the process are concentrated on a gravity belt thickener and then anaerobically digested. Following digestion, the sludge is dewatered on a belt filter press, dried in the greenhouses and hauled to a landfill for disposal.

The treatment plant is staffed seven days a week by licensed operators who are responsible for all aspects of operation and maintenance of the complex wastewater treatment facility. On a yearly average  we process approximately one billion gallons of wastewater through our plant, and removed approximately one hundred fifty tons of sludge before returning it back to the river.