Field Guides

Temperature-driven changes to wasting, DO targets, and MCRT management through the year.

Polymer conditioning, jar testing, and getting consistent performance from gravity belt thickeners, belt presses, and centrifuges.

Digester types, loading management, key indicators, and the two failure modes to watch for.

DO control strategies, blower operation, and responding to aeration system failures and oxygen demand swings.

Managing hydraulic surges, preventing SSOs, and protecting biological treatment during high-flow events.

Identifying hydraulic vs. biological upsets and how to respond before conditions worsen.

Diagnosing and correcting sludge blanket problems, rising sludge, and effluent quality issues in secondary clarifiers.

Establishing hydraulics, seeding biology, and bringing a plant back online after a planned or emergency outage.

Immediate response, flow management, generator operations, process priorities, and restoring normal operations after a power loss event.

Step-by-step 30-minute settleometer procedure, SVI calculation, and interpreting results to guide wasting and RAS decisions.

Total alkalinity procedure using sulfuric acid titration, result calculation, and target ranges for activated sludge and anaerobic digestion.

Two-point and three-point calibration procedures, electrode care, field measurement technique, and troubleshooting drift and slow response.

Gravimetric procedure for total and volatile suspended solids, filter preparation, drying and ignition protocol, and calculation of both values from a single sample.

Air-saturation and water-saturation calibration for membrane and optical DO sensors, barometric pressure correction, field measurement technique, and membrane maintenance.