Jones Island Touring Opportunity
- Brady O'Connor
- Oct 6, 2019
- 3 min read
For my Environmental Engineering class this semester we had an extra credit opportunity to tour a few places for "Open Doors Milwaukee" and write a summary. I chose to visit Jones Island wastewater treatment facility and it was truly fascinating!
When arriving to Jones Island, the very first thing you notice is how large the facility is. From the ground view, it is absolutely massive. There are buildings, smokestacks, tanks, and pipes everywhere. It looks incredibly complicated. When we got out of the car, the next thing you notice is the smell. While I knew it would smell before arriving, it didn’t occur to me how potent it actually was. It didn’t smell exactly like just pure feces, but it did not smell pleasant. I got used to it rather quickly, but the guy I brought with me did not get used to it. We hopped right on the coach tour bus and headed off to see how the clean our wastewater. We learned quite a few things, aside from the actual process. We learned that they have a capacity of 330 million gallons of water at any given point. During heavy rain events, if the amount of water exceeds 330 million, they have to send it to South Shore Wastewater Treatment Center. When South Shore can’t take any more they will send it to the deep tunnel. I thought the fact that they could just hit a button and completely change the course of millions of gallons of wastewater was really quite cool. I would love to be able to see how that process works underground. We also learned that since 1926, MMSD has been working with wastewater 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They run continuously to ensure that everything runs smoothly (Milwaukee doesn’t stop flushing the toilets just because they’re closed). Jones Island also serves a 411 square mile area and 1.1 million people and all of their wastewater.
The entire wastewater treatment process at Jones Island begins with an Archimedes’ screw to bring the water to level with where the treatment begins. After this, the garbage and debris are cleared out of the water (toys, garbage, wipes, hair, etc.). In this step, they also remove sand or other sediment from the water. The water then is headed to the primary clarifiers. This is where the rich biosolids are separated from the water and it is shipped to South Shore to create methane gas. There is also a film that appears on the top, which consists of oils from the drains. After all of this is separated, the water is sent to the aeration tanks. These tanks contain microorganisms which use the oxygen in the water to degrade the pollutants in the water and reproduce, keeping the cycle alive without constantly needing to add new microorganisms. This part of the process can take up to 14 hours to complete and is by far the most time consuming. Fun fact, because of the amount ox oxygen in the water at this stage, humans would not be able to float in it if they had fallen in! After the aeration tanks, the water is headed to the settling tanks. These tanks remove the air and microorganisms from the water. Algae also begins to grow in the water at this stage (which is a good sign! Algae prefers clean water). Jones Island performs 300 lab tests per week of the water after this stage to ensure quality cleansing of the water is done. The last stage is disinfection. Chlorine is used to sterilize the water for 90 minutes. It is the neutralized and piped 18 feet out to Lake Michigan. Milwaukee’s wastewater treatment plants create some of the cleanest wastewater in the country. After the settling tanks, the water is already 95% clean before the disinfection! It was overall a very educational and pleasurable tour of the plant. I would be thrilled to work there at some point in my life.
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