September 24, 2024 • 20 mins
Season 1, Episode 8: Water Resource Recovery Department Superintendent Jared Keenan joins "Indy Unplugged" for an informative conversation that sheds light into the City's new state-of-the-art facility, previews the Open House event on Thursday, October 3, 2024, experiences and processes that staff follow through for operations at the plant and out in the field, as well as other insightful viewpoints and details.
Fast-forward to a specific topic covered:
- 00:00-00:41: Intro
- 00:42-1:00: Welcome
- 1:01-2:39: Open House Details
- 2:40-8:12: Technologies, Strategies & Plant Workflows
- 8:13-14:00: Plant's Performance with Historic Rainfall
- 14:01-16:43: Mix Between Facility & Community Operations
- 16:44-18:11: Interactions with Public
- 18:12-20:18: Closing
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Welcome to Indy Unplugged, the podcast
that's your front rowseat to the real talk of Indianola.
I'm Aaron Young,
your friendly neighborhood host,and we're diving deep into unfiltered
stories, candid chatsand the nitty gritty of our vibrant city.
Think of this as a crash coursein all things Indianola.
No fancy jargon, just real conversations.
(00:33):
So get comfy,
hit that play buttonand let's explore the heart and soul
of our communitytogether on Indy Unplugged.
All right.
Welcome back to another episode of IndyUnplugged, a City of Indianola podcast.
And todaywe are going to have a great conversation
with another one of our city leaders,Jared Keenan,
who is the superintendentof our Water Resource Recovery Facility.
(00:56):
Jared, how are you doing the day?
Thanks for coming.I’m good.. I appreciate you having me.
Well, we have some exciting newsupcoming for the facility
and the department itself.
Was this talk about what's happeningon October 3rd there at the plant.
We're going to have an open housefrom 1 to 3 p.m.
We're going to just welcome everybodyin from the public.
(01:16):
Anybody that wants to tour the facility,we're going to have staff on hand
to do tours, doing diveand anything particular about the plant.
It's gonna be kind of a casual thingwhere refreshments, um, just build
talk, talk about the construction,whatever, engineering from there as well.
So we're gonna be able
to pick their brainson different questions
about when we're building it,when they're designing it,
(01:37):
all that sort of thing, and just get into,um, showing off our great new facility.
Yeah.
And this is big time, too,
because we're approaching almost twofull years of complete operation
there at the plant and with constructionbeing completed, of course.
So this is really a big time eventfor the staff,
for the cityand for the community at large to really.
(01:59):
I mean, I know you'vehad some one off tours with students
and with other community members, just asthey've those requests have come in.
But this is kind of the true opportunity,the first real opportunity
for community members to really immersethemselves into the plant.
Right? Right.
Yeah.
We've done a number of tourswith different school
groups, DNR groups,all that kind of thing.
But this will be the first timethat the plan was established.
(02:22):
You know, the grass is established.
We've been in there for almost two yearshere come November.
So we've really gotten comfortablewith the facility.
The operators are way more comfortablewith talking about the facility
and showing it off.
So I think it'll bea really good opportunity
for the public to get a really good tourand get a really good immersion into it.
So just talk a little bitabout the old plant versus a new and just
(02:44):
how night and day from the operations,the locations, the technology.
Just how beneficialhas this new workflow in
this new plant been for staffand for the animal community?
It's a hugedifference on so many different levels.
The old facility capacity wasn't there,
(03:04):
so it was the biggest thingwe really struggled with.
We weren't able to treat the flowthat was coming in
all the way down to the technology.
And the technology is I mean, it's likeit's like riding a horse or,
you know, a Cadillac.
It's totally different.
The things that we can doat this new facility
and the things we can monitor and track,it's help operations so much.
(03:26):
We're able to pinpoint when things happen
and not just when it happened,but what else did it affect.
And we're able to chart it
and look at all those thingsand it's so helpful as an operator.
And then for the operators as wellfor the maintenance
on this new facility,it's it's a lot easier for us to maintain.
The facility was just it was hard to getparts, you know, stuff was outdated.
(03:47):
You'd try to find replacement partslike we don't make that anymore.
We don't have that stuff anymore.
Now it's, you know, we have a greatstock of parts for pieces of equipment.
So if we do that stuff go down, it'sjust booms right there.
We can keep it on sitefor a lot more organized.
So that helps a lot.
And so much science behind this, too,because within the plant,
(04:07):
with thestrategy, the iron nutrient strategy,
one of the first in the state herein Indianola to be able to incorporate
this workflow into the operations,just talked a little bit
more about the science and just kind ofthe the step by step process,
if you will, of that strategyand just how it is,
how we're good stewardsto our to the environment.
(04:28):
Mm hmm.
It's easier for me to explain it.
And there's two steps to the system.
There's biological and there's mechanical.
So everything starts out mechanically.
We're removing the big stuff that we don'twant in our system, like rocks, sticks,
that kind of thing. And then.
Then it gets a little finerto try and remove sand.
Those in organics that we can't treat.
And then it gets into the biological.
(04:48):
So we're we're basically farmersof microorganisms.
We try to keep a certain levelof microorganisms in the plant
to be able to treat the wastethat we're bringing in.
And that changes throughout the seasons.
Summer microorganisms just like us.
We can move a little quicker
when it gets cold outso that water temperature really drops.
They move a lot slower,they reproduce slower.
So we have to maintain different levelsof microorganisms throughout the seasons.
(05:12):
And then you bring in large flows withrain that that changes things for us too.
So the big thing that we're doingis farming those organisms.
We're watching them every day.
We want to see
what they're doing, their age, what well,how well they're doing it treating.
And then after it goesthrough that biological, then it becomes
mechanical again.
We settle those out,those microorganisms, the clean water
(05:33):
goes over.
We're and that goes out to thethrough our U.V.
system, out to the river.
And then we either recycle some of thosemicroorganisms or we actually waste them
where they go to another biological systemwhere they're broken down.
And then we actually thicken themand then put them into a storage
tank where we can reapply to ag fields.
And staff are always monitoring.
(05:53):
I mean, you talk about that stepby step process technology in real time.
If there's ever a a kink in the system,they're able
to assess, address and correct as that.
Right. Right. Yeah.
So our scatter systemis constantly monitoring those things.
If we have a failure with a pumpor any other process,
they're alerted immediatelyand are able to respond.
(06:15):
And then every day
that we're at the facility Mondaythrough Friday, we're monitoring through
through a lab test to check all the thingsthat we need to check for daily stuff.
And then we send out more in-depth samplesthat go out twice a week
for our permanent monitoring.
Yeah, about how large is the facilityitself, the acreage in the total land?
Yeah, it's about 15 acres.
(06:38):
We don't use all of it.
We're really spread out.We have space for growth.
We actually have space for anotherclarifier and another oxidation ditch
where.
So we are pretty spread out right now.
Looks there's some empty spots.
You can kind of see wherethat would naturally go.
But then we own quite a few acres,about 280,
I believe, of acreage around us,and a lot of that is ag field
(07:01):
and that's what we useto apply our biosolids well.
And so as the city continues to growor as demands continue
to need to be met, that facility,that plant, it's built for the future.
Yeah, exactly.
So we monitor loadings every day right nowwhere we're we have a lot of space
just with our current sizingfor a loading.
(07:24):
So we have a lot of room to grow justwithin our what we have built right now.
So that's, that's really nice to see.
We can, we can play with thingsa lot more that way.
We have a lot more room for error.
But as the city grows, we have that extraspace that we need to build more things.
So we're really set upwell for the future.
Yeah, no, it's an impressive plant.
We have awesome staff, soit's just a perfect opportunity for you.
(07:46):
Committee members,you listeners to come on out.
And October 3rd from 1 to 3 p.m.
to the Water Resource Recovery Facility,open house, the address of the plant.
Make sure you get your pin right nowit's 10939 Grimes Street in Indianola
and you can find
all this information on our cityof Indianola Social media channels
as well as our city of in in our websiteat WW W
(08:10):
dot Indianola, Iowa dot gov.
You talked about the rainfalland just how the plant is able to
kind of navigate really heavy rainfall.
And within this past summerit was historic levels
that any on reallythe entire state of Iowa had seen.
What was that like foryou guys on your end trying to continue
(08:33):
to serve the city and continue operationsto get back to a normal level?
Yeah, So it was a very stressful year.
Usually you have your rainy season, youknow, April, May, that's that's normal.
But then when you get excessiverains in July, when you're not even really
seeing that normally happen, that can bethat can change a lot of things.
(08:54):
And going back to the differencebetween the old plant, new plant.
So our new plant, our facility has a 36inch for gravity main
that turns into a 40 inch mainthat comes to the plant and
that we believe is able to convey all that
collection system flow, that extra flowand bring it to the plant.
So what we used to see is a lot of issuesin the collection system.
(09:14):
It wasn't able to get out there.It was kind of bottlenecked.
So we would see sanitary seweroverflows or assess those.
This year we very rarely saw those.
I think we we documented too, and that'sfor what we got this year for rainfall.
That was really impressive,
especially with talking to the DNRand what the other cities have been seen.
And so we were ableto get that to the plant.
(09:35):
But then now we're faced with ten,
13 gallons or 13,000 gallonsa minute coming to through the plant,
which we had never seen at the facility,and we haven't seen this
at the new facility yet.
So we really got to stretch his legs,
see different equipmentrun in different ways.
We have a basically a low flow sideand a high flow side of the whole plant.
(09:57):
And we were really running a high flowa lot.
And with those different processes,more equipment needs to come on.
At one pointwe were running everything we had.
We had our high flow pumps running,our had works.
We had both of our great unitsrunning to capture all that grit
that was coming in, both oxidationditches, all three secondary classifiers.
(10:19):
We were running our peak flow system.
So that's the first in the statethat's been implemented.
So we have a
10 million gallons a day capacitypeak flow unit,
basically giant filtersthat were running as well.
And then our U.V.
system was running all three banksall on all day
(10:40):
two to treat our our, our effluentgo to the river.
So we got to see the whole planton all at once.
And a lot of guys kind of comment.
It's like there'salmost like a hum out there
when you're seeing everythingjust go in and all that flow coming.
If you see a peak flow of 13,000 gallonsa minute, that's a lot of flow.
(11:01):
But we were able to handle itand that was the most impressive part
for all of us to see.
Yeah, no,I mean, I've been out to the plant
and just having those conversationswith you away from the podcast recording,
it's just incredible to see the plantand the technology
and the staff working dayin, day out to serve the community.
(11:24):
So when we had that heavy rainfall,how long of a stretch was it
for those like, you know, rigorousschedules and monitoring and everything?
How long did it takebetween heavy rainfall, it
being completed to thengetting back to normal?
That was the challenging part.
And a huge shout out to the staff.
I mean, those guys, theythey shifted their schedules around
(11:46):
to work 24 over sevento make sure the plant was monitored.
The on call on callguy was able to handle a lot of things,
call and staff when they needed itso it wouldn't have ran as smoothly
if it wasn't for themto make those sacrifices
to come in the middle of the nightand stay overnight and monitor things.
But it was it was a huge challenge,
(12:07):
especially with the rainfall eventsthat happened back to back.
So we kind of saw 12, maybe 12 to 18 hourswe could get back to normal
or at least controllablewith our facility,
were able to bring in a certain amountof flow through them to the main plant,
and then we divert anything above thatObrador AQ basin.
And then then from therewe can run through peak flow.
(12:30):
At one pointyou're kind of doing the math, right?
Okay, I'm taking in 13,000 gallonsa minute.
I'm taking in 7000 gallonsa minute through our peak flow.
Well, the rest of that has to gothrough the plant no matter what.
And then you're seeing our AQ basinis filling so on fill in, everything's on.
And then that dayit becomes a little stressful
and you're basically waiting for thatflow to start slowing down
(12:51):
and having to kind of
work with things and back things upa little bit as much as you can.
So that was a big challenge, a learningcurve for all of us to see where
how far can we push things.
So not only were we trying to keepa handle on everything, but we're trying
to also learn about our equipmentand our what's our limits.
So we were able to learn a lot
(13:12):
with the challenge was,you know, you'd come back to normal
and then they're talking, okay,you get a big rainfall on Monday, okay,
Tuesday afternoon, okay, we'rewe're back to normal a little bit.
We're able to handle everything.
We will start dropping ourAQ through our peak flow system.
Well, now they're talking, okay, Wednesdayyou're gonna get another big rainfall.
So that was the stressful part is, okay,
now we got to get ready, guys,We got to get this ready.
(13:33):
We got to get our little stationsready and monitor everything.
We had a couple of events where it waslike that, like, okay, got back to normal,
boom, You're going to get another rainfall
or the rainfall eventsthat they weren't projected.
I know we had at least one really big onewhere we didn't hear a thing about it
on the radar.
I mean, we watched the weather,didn't say a word, and then boom,
(13:54):
we got four inchesand we were like blindsided.
But the guys respondedreally well to that. Yeah.
And while you're handlingthat, everything at the plant,
you're also having to serve the communitywhenever there are emergencies.
So you're thinking about,
you know, flooded toilets, floodedbasements, that kind of degree.
How do you and your team balanceall the different demands of the job
(14:14):
comes with managing the plantand the regulations and requirements
and expected there from a level standpointto then providing that crisis.
We'll call it service to residentsand property owners in Indianola.
Yeah.
So at the beginningit was with the new facility
and the learning of itit's doing was challenging
because we're like, okay,where do we need to be?
(14:35):
We haven't gone through this yetwith the new facility,
so we didn't know where problemswere going to be or challenges. So
first thing first was,
okay, you got to have one personto monitor the facility
That could be just monitoring the lab,making sure that stuff's getting done.
Well,then you need somebody that can monitor
any issues up, up, up in the plant.
(14:56):
Like if you have pumps that arejust acting funny, not want to start or,
you know,we haven't seen 13,000 gallons a minute.
So you needed somebody else to be able
to kind of run and chasethose those issues down.
But then with this new peak flow systemthat brought some challenges
to at the beginning.
So we needed a guy to be able to watchthat and learn about that and be able
to sit there and basically monitor itthrough that and through that work shift.
(15:20):
But then that didn'tcover the collection systems,
so the guys had to kind of divideand conquer, be able to go out.
If they hadn't, if you had a lift station,go out, monitor those.
If we had any complaints in town about
like,
oh, these were storm storms,storm were issues with getting overloaded
so we don't get out there, respond,make sure our infrastructure is okay,
(15:42):
and then just be able to kind of directwhere any of these issues are happening
and what we can do to, you know,make sure that the public is safe.
Yeah.
And from a safety standpoint,how does the water Resource Recovery
Department prioritize safetyto ensure that they're
always out of harm's way and doing the job
(16:02):
appropriately and in a safe manner,
both out in the fieldand then back at the plant
beginning is communication,letting everybody know where you're at,
if you're going to go out.
We're communicating every morning.
If we come in, we have issues, you know,okay, we have this going on at this low
station, okay, Tend to guys you to gocheck it out.
If we had the ability to do that,
if we maybe have a little minorof an issue, we can send one guy out.
(16:26):
As far as issues in the collection system
is sewer mains and manholesand all that stuff.
We were in the street.
We got to guys, you know, all the PPE,the lights, the trucks going,
trying to be as safe as possible outside,
as well as tryingto take care of the issue at hand.
Yeah.
And oftentimes for your departmentspecifically, I mean, you're very much
(16:47):
behind the scenes, kind of the unsungheroes of the city, we'll call it.
But it's also really cool for when,
you know,the trucks are out in the community doing,
you know, inspections and testsand things of that nature.
There are some timeswhere you've had some committee members
come up and be like, Hey,what are you guys doing in a good way?
Not be like, Hey, get off my lawn,but being able to kind of learn more
(17:07):
about the processesthat staff are conducting to ensure
the community'sbeing served appropriately,
that's that's goingbe a lot of fun, right?
When you have those interactionswith community members.
Yeah.
And that that happens a lotA lot of people are just like what do you
what are you doing?
No, not on the roadway,not just kind of interesting.
What's what is that truck?
Why are you doing what you're doing?
What's really cool about our camera truckspecifically is on the back.
(17:31):
There is a there's a monitor.
So you can actually walk up and you can
you can see just from the groundwhat's going on in the pipe.
And a lot of people had no ideayou can even do that.
You can put a camerathat looks like a little,
you know, RC tractor,you know, through the sewer line
and look at stuff that they had no ideawe could even have that capability.
But it is really important for usto just keep up on our maintenance.
(17:54):
And if we find any issues, whatthat issue is, if we can get in there
and if we need to do a total repairon the on the line
or if we do like a plant repairand that kind of thing, see all this stuff
that you listeners can learn more aboutand engage in at the open house.
So a lot of really cool stuffthat's in stores.
Jerod Lastly, before we kind of wrap up,is there anything that you'd like to share
(18:16):
with listeners to learnmore about the department, why you love
working for the city of Indianola?
Just I really want to open up the floor
for you to kind of shareany final closing remarks.
Yeah, I just want to extend out.
We always do tours, so pleasefeel free to call out and scheduled tours.
We love to do groups,especially school groups.
(18:38):
We try to do as much outreachas we can as far as fairs,
job fairs and that kind of thing.
But if you want to see the plant,please call.
And that group size doesn't matter.
We'll do anywhere from just a handfulup to 20, 30, 40 people.
We'll make it happen.
Get that scheduled.
But please feel free to call.
If you even have any questions, just calland we can discuss that.
(19:03):
And look forward to seeing a ton of peopleat our open house on October.
Yeah, no, it could be a great time.
A lot of community members,we've got the RSVP form.
So right nowthat deadline set for those RSVP for
Friday, September 27th,but we might lengthen it out.
I mean, we're we're an open housefor public or public.
We're city government.
(19:23):
So anyone can come at any
time as as Jared said, as long as you makethose appointments necessary.
So we'll
we'll put that contact information andthe description of this podcast episode.
But Jared, just want to saythank you for hopping on and thank you
for all of your work and your leadershipand the guys are phenomenal as well.
So just thank you very much for everythingyou do for the City of Indianola.
(19:45):
Ron Thanks for having me.
All right.
That'll wrap upthis episode of Indie Unplugged.
Hey, make sure wherever you're listeningto us, you're able to leave us a comment.
Send us a review.
That way we can make sure that we'rehitting the mark for these podcasts.
For all of you listeners,and we want to make sure that we're having
engaging conversations, insightfulconversations that you find valuable
(20:08):
and you're able to stay connectedwith the city of Indianola.
And who knows, maybe next time you'll bea future guest of Indie Unplugged.
Welcome to Indy Unplugged, the podcast
that's your front rowseat to the real talk of Indianola.
I'm Aaron Young,
your friendly neighborhood host,and we're diving deep into unfiltered
stories, candid chatsand the nitty gritty of our vibrant city.
Think of this as a crash coursein all things Indianola.
No fancy jargon, just real conversations.
(00:33):
So get comfy,
hit that play buttonand let's explore the heart and soul
of our communitytogether on Indy Unplugged.
All right.
Welcome back to another episode of IndyUnplugged, a City of Indianola podcast.
And todaywe are going to have a great conversation
with another one of our city leaders,Jared Keenan,
who is the superintendentof our Water Resource Recovery Facility.
(00:56):
Jared, how are you doing the day?
Thanks for coming.I’m good.. I appreciate you having me.
Well, we have some exciting newsupcoming for the facility
and the department itself.
Was this talk about what's happeningon October 3rd there at the plant.
We're going to have an open housefrom 1 to 3 p.m.
We're going to just welcome everybodyin from the public.
(01:16):
Anybody that wants to tour the facility,we're going to have staff on hand
to do tours, doing diveand anything particular about the plant.
It's gonna be kind of a casual thingwhere refreshments, um, just build
talk, talk about the construction,whatever, engineering from there as well.
So we're gonna be able
to pick their brainson different questions
about when we're building it,when they're designing it,
(01:37):
all that sort of thing, and just get into,um, showing off our great new facility.
Yeah.
And this is big time, too,
because we're approaching almost twofull years of complete operation
there at the plant and with constructionbeing completed, of course.
So this is really a big time eventfor the staff,
for the cityand for the community at large to really.
(01:59):
I mean, I know you'vehad some one off tours with students
and with other community members, just asthey've those requests have come in.
But this is kind of the true opportunity,the first real opportunity
for community members to really immersethemselves into the plant.
Right? Right.
Yeah.
We've done a number of tourswith different school
groups, DNR groups,all that kind of thing.
But this will be the first timethat the plan was established.
(02:22):
You know, the grass is established.
We've been in there for almost two yearshere come November.
So we've really gotten comfortablewith the facility.
The operators are way more comfortablewith talking about the facility
and showing it off.
So I think it'll bea really good opportunity
for the public to get a really good tourand get a really good immersion into it.
So just talk a little bitabout the old plant versus a new and just
(02:44):
how night and day from the operations,the locations, the technology.
Just how beneficialhas this new workflow in
this new plant been for staffand for the animal community?
It's a hugedifference on so many different levels.
The old facility capacity wasn't there,
(03:04):
so it was the biggest thingwe really struggled with.
We weren't able to treat the flowthat was coming in
all the way down to the technology.
And the technology is I mean, it's likeit's like riding a horse or,
you know, a Cadillac.
It's totally different.
The things that we can doat this new facility
and the things we can monitor and track,it's help operations so much.
(03:26):
We're able to pinpoint when things happen
and not just when it happened,but what else did it affect.
And we're able to chart it
and look at all those thingsand it's so helpful as an operator.
And then for the operators as wellfor the maintenance
on this new facility,it's it's a lot easier for us to maintain.
The facility was just it was hard to getparts, you know, stuff was outdated.
(03:47):
You'd try to find replacement partslike we don't make that anymore.
We don't have that stuff anymore.
Now it's, you know, we have a greatstock of parts for pieces of equipment.
So if we do that stuff go down, it'sjust booms right there.
We can keep it on sitefor a lot more organized.
So that helps a lot.
And so much science behind this, too,because within the plant,
(04:07):
with thestrategy, the iron nutrient strategy,
one of the first in the state herein Indianola to be able to incorporate
this workflow into the operations,just talked a little bit
more about the science and just kind ofthe the step by step process,
if you will, of that strategyand just how it is,
how we're good stewardsto our to the environment.
(04:28):
Mm hmm.
It's easier for me to explain it.
And there's two steps to the system.
There's biological and there's mechanical.
So everything starts out mechanically.
We're removing the big stuff that we don'twant in our system, like rocks, sticks,
that kind of thing. And then.
Then it gets a little finerto try and remove sand.
Those in organics that we can't treat.
And then it gets into the biological.
(04:48):
So we're we're basically farmersof microorganisms.
We try to keep a certain levelof microorganisms in the plant
to be able to treat the wastethat we're bringing in.
And that changes throughout the seasons.
Summer microorganisms just like us.
We can move a little quicker
when it gets cold outso that water temperature really drops.
They move a lot slower,they reproduce slower.
So we have to maintain different levelsof microorganisms throughout the seasons.
(05:12):
And then you bring in large flows withrain that that changes things for us too.
So the big thing that we're doingis farming those organisms.
We're watching them every day.
We want to see
what they're doing, their age, what well,how well they're doing it treating.
And then after it goesthrough that biological, then it becomes
mechanical again.
We settle those out,those microorganisms, the clean water
(05:33):
goes over.
We're and that goes out to thethrough our U.V.
system, out to the river.
And then we either recycle some of thosemicroorganisms or we actually waste them
where they go to another biological systemwhere they're broken down.
And then we actually thicken themand then put them into a storage
tank where we can reapply to ag fields.
And staff are always monitoring.
(05:53):
I mean, you talk about that stepby step process technology in real time.
If there's ever a a kink in the system,they're able
to assess, address and correct as that.
Right. Right. Yeah.
So our scatter systemis constantly monitoring those things.
If we have a failure with a pumpor any other process,
they're alerted immediatelyand are able to respond.
(06:15):
And then every day
that we're at the facility Mondaythrough Friday, we're monitoring through
through a lab test to check all the thingsthat we need to check for daily stuff.
And then we send out more in-depth samplesthat go out twice a week
for our permanent monitoring.
Yeah, about how large is the facilityitself, the acreage in the total land?
Yeah, it's about 15 acres.
(06:38):
We don't use all of it.
We're really spread out.We have space for growth.
We actually have space for anotherclarifier and another oxidation ditch
where.
So we are pretty spread out right now.
Looks there's some empty spots.
You can kind of see wherethat would naturally go.
But then we own quite a few acres,about 280,
I believe, of acreage around us,and a lot of that is ag field
(07:01):
and that's what we useto apply our biosolids well.
And so as the city continues to growor as demands continue
to need to be met, that facility,that plant, it's built for the future.
Yeah, exactly.
So we monitor loadings every day right nowwhere we're we have a lot of space
just with our current sizingfor a loading.
(07:24):
So we have a lot of room to grow justwithin our what we have built right now.
So that's, that's really nice to see.
We can, we can play with thingsa lot more that way.
We have a lot more room for error.
But as the city grows, we have that extraspace that we need to build more things.
So we're really set upwell for the future.
Yeah, no, it's an impressive plant.
We have awesome staff, soit's just a perfect opportunity for you.
(07:46):
Committee members,you listeners to come on out.
And October 3rd from 1 to 3 p.m.
to the Water Resource Recovery Facility,open house, the address of the plant.
Make sure you get your pin right nowit's 10939 Grimes Street in Indianola
and you can find
all this information on our cityof Indianola Social media channels
as well as our city of in in our websiteat WW W
(08:10):
dot Indianola, Iowa dot gov.
You talked about the rainfalland just how the plant is able to
kind of navigate really heavy rainfall.
And within this past summerit was historic levels
that any on reallythe entire state of Iowa had seen.
What was that like foryou guys on your end trying to continue
(08:33):
to serve the city and continue operationsto get back to a normal level?
Yeah, So it was a very stressful year.
Usually you have your rainy season, youknow, April, May, that's that's normal.
But then when you get excessiverains in July, when you're not even really
seeing that normally happen, that can bethat can change a lot of things.
(08:54):
And going back to the differencebetween the old plant, new plant.
So our new plant, our facility has a 36inch for gravity main
that turns into a 40 inch mainthat comes to the plant and
that we believe is able to convey all that
collection system flow, that extra flowand bring it to the plant.
So what we used to see is a lot of issuesin the collection system.
(09:14):
It wasn't able to get out there.It was kind of bottlenecked.
So we would see sanitary seweroverflows or assess those.
This year we very rarely saw those.
I think we we documented too, and that'sfor what we got this year for rainfall.
That was really impressive,
especially with talking to the DNRand what the other cities have been seen.
And so we were ableto get that to the plant.
(09:35):
But then now we're faced with ten,
13 gallons or 13,000 gallonsa minute coming to through the plant,
which we had never seen at the facility,and we haven't seen this
at the new facility yet.
So we really got to stretch his legs,
see different equipmentrun in different ways.
We have a basically a low flow sideand a high flow side of the whole plant.
(09:57):
And we were really running a high flowa lot.
And with those different processes,more equipment needs to come on.
At one pointwe were running everything we had.
We had our high flow pumps running,our had works.
We had both of our great unitsrunning to capture all that grit
that was coming in, both oxidationditches, all three secondary classifiers.
(10:19):
We were running our peak flow system.
So that's the first in the statethat's been implemented.
So we have a
10 million gallons a day capacitypeak flow unit,
basically giant filtersthat were running as well.
And then our U.V.
system was running all three banksall on all day
(10:40):
two to treat our our, our effluentgo to the river.
So we got to see the whole planton all at once.
And a lot of guys kind of comment.
It's like there'salmost like a hum out there
when you're seeing everythingjust go in and all that flow coming.
If you see a peak flow of 13,000 gallonsa minute, that's a lot of flow.
(11:01):
But we were able to handle itand that was the most impressive part
for all of us to see.
Yeah, no,I mean, I've been out to the plant
and just having those conversationswith you away from the podcast recording,
it's just incredible to see the plantand the technology
and the staff working dayin, day out to serve the community.
(11:24):
So when we had that heavy rainfall,how long of a stretch was it
for those like, you know, rigorousschedules and monitoring and everything?
How long did it takebetween heavy rainfall, it
being completed to thengetting back to normal?
That was the challenging part.
And a huge shout out to the staff.
I mean, those guys, theythey shifted their schedules around
(11:46):
to work 24 over sevento make sure the plant was monitored.
The on call on callguy was able to handle a lot of things,
call and staff when they needed itso it wouldn't have ran as smoothly
if it wasn't for themto make those sacrifices
to come in the middle of the nightand stay overnight and monitor things.
But it was it was a huge challenge,
(12:07):
especially with the rainfall eventsthat happened back to back.
So we kind of saw 12, maybe 12 to 18 hourswe could get back to normal
or at least controllablewith our facility,
were able to bring in a certain amountof flow through them to the main plant,
and then we divert anything above thatObrador AQ basin.
And then then from therewe can run through peak flow.
(12:30):
At one pointyou're kind of doing the math, right?
Okay, I'm taking in 13,000 gallonsa minute.
I'm taking in 7000 gallonsa minute through our peak flow.
Well, the rest of that has to gothrough the plant no matter what.
And then you're seeing our AQ basinis filling so on fill in, everything's on.
And then that dayit becomes a little stressful
and you're basically waiting for thatflow to start slowing down
(12:51):
and having to kind of
work with things and back things upa little bit as much as you can.
So that was a big challenge, a learningcurve for all of us to see where
how far can we push things.
So not only were we trying to keepa handle on everything, but we're trying
to also learn about our equipmentand our what's our limits.
So we were able to learn a lot
(13:12):
with the challenge was,you know, you'd come back to normal
and then they're talking, okay,you get a big rainfall on Monday, okay,
Tuesday afternoon, okay, we'rewe're back to normal a little bit.
We're able to handle everything.
We will start dropping ourAQ through our peak flow system.
Well, now they're talking, okay, Wednesdayyou're gonna get another big rainfall.
So that was the stressful part is, okay,
now we got to get ready, guys,We got to get this ready.
(13:33):
We got to get our little stationsready and monitor everything.
We had a couple of events where it waslike that, like, okay, got back to normal,
boom, You're going to get another rainfall
or the rainfall eventsthat they weren't projected.
I know we had at least one really big onewhere we didn't hear a thing about it
on the radar.
I mean, we watched the weather,didn't say a word, and then boom,
(13:54):
we got four inchesand we were like blindsided.
But the guys respondedreally well to that. Yeah.
And while you're handlingthat, everything at the plant,
you're also having to serve the communitywhenever there are emergencies.
So you're thinking about,
you know, flooded toilets, floodedbasements, that kind of degree.
How do you and your team balanceall the different demands of the job
(14:14):
comes with managing the plantand the regulations and requirements
and expected there from a level standpointto then providing that crisis.
We'll call it service to residentsand property owners in Indianola.
Yeah.
So at the beginningit was with the new facility
and the learning of itit's doing was challenging
because we're like, okay,where do we need to be?
(14:35):
We haven't gone through this yetwith the new facility,
so we didn't know where problemswere going to be or challenges. So
first thing first was,
okay, you got to have one personto monitor the facility
That could be just monitoring the lab,making sure that stuff's getting done.
Well,then you need somebody that can monitor
any issues up, up, up in the plant.
(14:56):
Like if you have pumps that arejust acting funny, not want to start or,
you know,we haven't seen 13,000 gallons a minute.
So you needed somebody else to be able
to kind of run and chasethose those issues down.
But then with this new peak flow systemthat brought some challenges
to at the beginning.
So we needed a guy to be able to watchthat and learn about that and be able
to sit there and basically monitor itthrough that and through that work shift.
(15:20):
But then that didn'tcover the collection systems,
so the guys had to kind of divideand conquer, be able to go out.
If they hadn't, if you had a lift station,go out, monitor those.
If we had any complaints in town about
like,
oh, these were storm storms,storm were issues with getting overloaded
so we don't get out there, respond,make sure our infrastructure is okay,
(15:42):
and then just be able to kind of directwhere any of these issues are happening
and what we can do to, you know,make sure that the public is safe.
Yeah.
And from a safety standpoint,how does the water Resource Recovery
Department prioritize safetyto ensure that they're
always out of harm's way and doing the job
(16:02):
appropriately and in a safe manner,
both out in the fieldand then back at the plant
beginning is communication,letting everybody know where you're at,
if you're going to go out.
We're communicating every morning.
If we come in, we have issues, you know,okay, we have this going on at this low
station, okay, Tend to guys you to gocheck it out.
If we had the ability to do that,
if we maybe have a little minorof an issue, we can send one guy out.
(16:26):
As far as issues in the collection system
is sewer mains and manholesand all that stuff.
We were in the street.
We got to guys, you know, all the PPE,the lights, the trucks going,
trying to be as safe as possible outside,
as well as tryingto take care of the issue at hand.
Yeah.
And oftentimes for your departmentspecifically, I mean, you're very much
(16:47):
behind the scenes, kind of the unsungheroes of the city, we'll call it.
But it's also really cool for when,
you know,the trucks are out in the community doing,
you know, inspections and testsand things of that nature.
There are some timeswhere you've had some committee members
come up and be like, Hey,what are you guys doing in a good way?
Not be like, Hey, get off my lawn,but being able to kind of learn more
(17:07):
about the processesthat staff are conducting to ensure
the community'sbeing served appropriately,
that's that's goingbe a lot of fun, right?
When you have those interactionswith community members.
Yeah.
And that that happens a lotA lot of people are just like what do you
what are you doing?
No, not on the roadway,not just kind of interesting.
What's what is that truck?
Why are you doing what you're doing?
What's really cool about our camera truckspecifically is on the back.
(17:31):
There is a there's a monitor.
So you can actually walk up and you can
you can see just from the groundwhat's going on in the pipe.
And a lot of people had no ideayou can even do that.
You can put a camerathat looks like a little,
you know, RC tractor,you know, through the sewer line
and look at stuff that they had no ideawe could even have that capability.
But it is really important for usto just keep up on our maintenance.
(17:54):
And if we find any issues, whatthat issue is, if we can get in there
and if we need to do a total repairon the on the line
or if we do like a plant repairand that kind of thing, see all this stuff
that you listeners can learn more aboutand engage in at the open house.
So a lot of really cool stuffthat's in stores.
Jerod Lastly, before we kind of wrap up,is there anything that you'd like to share
(18:16):
with listeners to learnmore about the department, why you love
working for the city of Indianola?
Just I really want to open up the floor
for you to kind of shareany final closing remarks.
Yeah, I just want to extend out.
We always do tours, so pleasefeel free to call out and scheduled tours.
We love to do groups,especially school groups.
(18:38):
We try to do as much outreachas we can as far as fairs,
job fairs and that kind of thing.
But if you want to see the plant,please call.
And that group size doesn't matter.
We'll do anywhere from just a handfulup to 20, 30, 40 people.
We'll make it happen.
Get that scheduled.
But please feel free to call.
If you even have any questions, just calland we can discuss that.
(19:03):
And look forward to seeing a ton of peopleat our open house on October.
Yeah, no, it could be a great time.
A lot of community members,we've got the RSVP form.
So right nowthat deadline set for those RSVP for
Friday, September 27th,but we might lengthen it out.
I mean, we're we're an open housefor public or public.
We're city government.
(19:23):
So anyone can come at any
time as as Jared said, as long as you makethose appointments necessary.
So we'll
we'll put that contact information andthe description of this podcast episode.
But Jared, just want to saythank you for hopping on and thank you
for all of your work and your leadershipand the guys are phenomenal as well.
So just thank you very much for everythingyou do for the City of Indianola.
(19:45):
Ron Thanks for having me.
All right.
That'll wrap upthis episode of Indie Unplugged.
Hey, make sure wherever you're listeningto us, you're able to leave us a comment.
Send us a review.
That way we can make sure that we'rehitting the mark for these podcasts.
For all of you listeners,and we want to make sure that we're having
engaging conversations, insightfulconversations that you find valuable
(20:08):
and you're able to stay connectedwith the city of Indianola.
And who knows, maybe next time you'll bea future guest of Indie Unplugged.
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