Practical Wastewater Process Control
Troubleshooting guides, calculators and plain language explanations for activated sludge operators. Built from hands-on experience operating, designing and starting up treatment plants.
Troubleshoot a problem Open the calculators Hire WSI for your plant
Need help at your plant? Hire the people who wrote this site.
Wastewater Solutions, Inc. (WSI) helps utilities and industrial plants across the United States start up new facilities, cut energy and chemical costs, regain permit compliance, and build certified, confident operating staffs. Pick only what your plant needs. Every job is quoted as a lump sum.
Startup and Commissioning
We plan and run startups from construction to full operation, from functional and performance testing to SCADA loop checks and alarm setpoints.
On-Site Operator Training
Plant-specific training at your plant: manual, training, materials and interactive process control workbooks, plus certification prep.
Troubleshooting and Optimization
Process audits and troubleshooting with documented results, and energy audits that cut electricity, natural gas and chemical costs.
O&M Manuals and SOPs
Electronic, plant-specific O&M manuals for municipal and industrial plants, written by operators for operators.
Design Review and Consulting
Design operability reviews, value engineering, condition assessment, staffing studies and contract operations reviews.
Request a Quote
Tell us your plant, its flow and the services you need. Brad Musick will reply with a lump sum quote.
What do you need help with today?
Troubleshoot my plant
Step-by-step guides from symptom to corrective action.
Run a calculation
About 30 calculators with formulas and worked examples.
Understand a process
Activated sludge, nitrification, clarifiers, aeration and more.
Identify what I see under the microscope
A short questionnaire that points to the likely organism.
Prepare for a certification exam
Study tips and sample math with answers.
Look something up
Formula sheet, reference tables, glossary and diagrams.
What are you trying to solve?
Start with what you see at the plant.
High SVI
Sludge settles slowly and the blanket creeps up.
High effluent ammonia
Nitrification is falling behind the permit.
Solids in the clarifier
Blanket rising, solids at the weirs.
Foaming
Thick brown or white foam on the basins.
Filamentous bulking
Filaments bridging flocs and holding up settling.
Low or high DO
DO will not hold setpoint, or blowers run harder than needed.
Operator questions, answered
Who writes this
ActivatedSludge.com is written by Brad Musick, President of Wastewater Solutions, Inc. He has run plants, started up facilities, trained operators and written O&M manuals all over the country, and has held the highest wastewater operator certification in six states.