Ludington purchasing odor control system for wastewater treatment plant.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.

LUDINGTON — The city continues to make efforts to reduce odors coming from the wastewater treatment plant, located east of the city. The city is purchasing a vapor-phase system to reduce odors coming from the wastewater treatment plant. Due to an aging aeration system and increased industrial usage, the plant has been emitting more odors recently. The new system is expected to reduce the odors.

“If needed, this system will pump an odor-control product through PVC piping that will surround a portion of the largest wastewater treatment lagoon in order to mitigate any odors,” said City Manager John Shay. “This system would be used in the event that the recent repairs to the aeration system do not completely resolve the odor issue.”

Shay said delivery of the system will take six to eight weeks, “though the city is working to expedite this as much as possible.”

The aeration system consists of a series of pipes. Air is pumped through the pipes to the wastewater lagoons to provide oxygen to the biological process used for treatment. The repairs made to date, Shay said, have resulted in 50% increase in the amount of air returned to the lagoons and “have had a direct impact on reducing the odors at the wastewater treatment plant.”