Water Quality
Division
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WATER QUALITY DIVISION OVERVIEW
The Water Quality Division is primarily responsible for the
operation and maintenance Covington’s Water Treatment and
Wastewater Treatment Facilities. Responsibilities associated
with the operation for these facilities include the development
and implementation of State and Federal mandated programs such
as the Industrial Pretreatment Treatment Program, Industrial
Sampling Program, Cross-Connection Program, Well Head Protection
Program, Lead and Copper Program, Dead End Water Main Flushing
Program, Bacteriological Sampling Program and Safe Drinking
Water Compliance Monitoring Program.
The WQD is currently staffed by six Operators licensed by the
State of Tennessee for the operation of water and wastewater
treatment facilities. Four of these Operators hold the highest
level of license issued by the State of Tennessee.
Additional duties assigned to WQD include the administration of
the citywide computer network, City of Covington website
administration, technical support for all City computer issues,
computer hardware and software purchase and installation, the
GIS (Geographical Information System) Department, and operation
and maintenance of the City’s traffic light system.
WATER TREATMENT FACILITY
The Water Treatment Facility, located at 300 S. College,
operates under the authority of the Tennessee Division of Water
Supply and the standards they have established. The facility is
responsible for supplying safe drinking water for the
residential, commercial and industrial community of the City and
surrounding area.
The Water Facility utilizes four deep wells to draw water from
the Memphis Sands Aquifer at an average depth of about 525
feet. Treatment is accomplished by aeration for iron oxidation
and CO2 removal, followed by chlorination, fluoridation, pH
adjustment and iron filtration. In its present configuration,
the WTP will produce approximately 6 million gallons of treated
water per day and currently is at about 35% capacity.
Additionally, the Water Quality Division is responsible for the
operation and maintenance of six water storage tanks that total
2,050,000 gallons of water storage capacity.
Facility operation is accomplished by a Supervisory Control and
Data Acquisition (SCADA) Computer system installed in 1991 and
upgraded in 1996. The Water Quality Division is responsible for
SCADA system operation, maintenance and configuration, as well
as the operation, maintenance and repair of the associated
telemetry system, which gathers information from ten Remote
Terminal Units and, on site process equipment.
Water quality is ensured by a state mandated monitoring schedule
which to date includes analysis by commercial laboratories for
approximately 200 contaminants. Additionally, our in house lab
conducts approximately 450 separate water analysis each month.
To ensure compliance with regulations, the Tennessee Division of
Water Supply routinely inspects the facility.
Awards for the Water Treatment Facility include two Operator of
the Year for West Tennessee awards, one Operator of the Year for
the State of Tennessee and a Water Plant of the Year for the
State of Tennessee.
WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY
The Wastewater Treatment Facility, located in the Rialto
Industrial Park, operates under the National Pollution Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES) permit # TN0020982 issued by the
State of Tennessee. In compliance with the provisions of the
Federal Clean Water Act, the Tennessee Water Control Act and
Regulations of the Tennessee Division of Water Pollution
Control, the Covington Wastewater Treatment Facility is
authorized to discharge treated municipal/sanitary wastewater to
the Hatchie River at mile 35.2 in accordance with effluent
limitations, monitoring requirements and other conditions set
forth in the above mentioned NPDES permit.
Constructed in 1983, the facility has quietly provided one of
the most valuable services offered by the City of Covington.
Utilizing approved methods for biological removal of organic
matter, followed by disinfection using chlorination and
dechlorination using sulfur dioxide, the Covington Wastewater
Treatment facility produces a high quality, usable effluent
which exceeds the standards established by the Environmental
Protection Agency and State of Tennessee. The end result is an
environment friendly effluent discharged to the Hatchie River
for which the State of Tennessee has classified for use as a
domestic water supply, industrial water supply, fish and aquatic
life, recreation, irrigation, livestock watering and wildlife
uses. Simply put, our mission is to protect the environment.
The facility in its present configuration is designed for 3.62
million gallons per day average daily hydraulic loading and 7240
lbs./day for BOD (organic) loading. The facility utilizes
mechanical screening and grit removal, four 800,000 gallon
extended aeration oxidation ditches, four 212,000 gallon
clarifiers and one chlorine contact chamber for disinfection
which utilizes dechlorination to meet state requirements.
Sludge management is accomplished by one 375,000-gallon aerobic
digester, one 800,000-gallon aerobic digester and one
121,000-gallon gravity sludge thickener. Treated sludge is
currently land applied by private contractor. The City is
presently in design phase of a project to construct a sludge
dewatering facility. Once in operation, the City will prepare
sludge for ultimate disposal at an approved land fill.
The Covington Wastewater Treatment Facility has received
numerous letters of commendation from the Tennessee Division of
Water Pollution Control and has had several nominations for
EPA's Excellence in Operation Award.
The facility currently
treats over 2 million gallons per day and in it's 23 years of
operation has returned over 12 billion gallons of unpolluted
water back to the environment.
INDUSTRIAL PRETREATMENT PROGRAM
In 1987 the Water Quality Division implemented an Industrial
Pretreatment Program in accordance with regulations mandated by
the USEPA. The program is designed to give the City the
authority to limit certain concentrations and quantities of
compounds in industrial discharges, which have the potential to
interfere with the effectiveness of the Covington Wastewater
Treatment Plant to remove pollutants, which could damage our
receiving stream, the Hatchie River. Under the guidelines of
this program we are required to annually inspect industries on
our sewer system, issue discharge permits if deemed necessary
and are given the authority to apply enforcement actions for
non-compliance. Presently we have six permitted industries in
our program. We are responsible for establishing permits for
each industry, routine inspections of each industry, conducting
our own sampling and analysis program, mandating self monitoring
programs for each industry, determining compliance with permits
and issuing enforcement actions as necessary. To ensure our
compliance with the program, we are subject to annual
pretreatment audits conducted by the Tennessee Division of Water
Pollution Control.
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