Located along the Spokane River and set among large evergreen trees, the City of Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, treatment plant follows some of the toughest treatment requirements in the nation. The facility must meet strict nutrient limits in order to protect the river and a downstream drinking water reservoir.
In 2010, the facility’s head works was upgraded, and it now includes two bar screens with 0.25-in. (6-mm) openings and two of JWC’s Screenings Washer Monsters. Designed by HDR Engineering, the head works includes model SWM3018 washer compactors, which receive rags from the screens via a sluice system.
Inside the Screenings Washer Monster, debris is ground, washed, separated, compacted and dewatered as it is pushed up and out of the discharge tube and into a dumpster, ready for landfill disposal.
The Screenings Washer Monster’s discharge is remarkably clean, dry and free of fecal material. The cleaned screenings look like slightly damp, shredded newspaper.
Plant personnel even fashioned their own rotating sluice pipeline to switch between the two Screenings Washer Monsters. To help balance the load and extend equipment life, each system is run for one month, and then an operator rotates the pipeline and screenings fall into the other Screenings Washer Monster.