The Passaic Valley Sewage Commission stretches over 172 acres along the Newark Bay and manages the sewage of 1.5 million customers in northern New Jersey. Among the largest sewage treatment systems in the United States, the facility also receives a wide variety of municipal and industrial liquid wastes delivered by pipeline, trucks, and rail and barge traffic.
The Commission was originally designed to treat 330 million gallons per day, but the plant often experiences spikes of up to 550 million gallons per day during rain events. As a result, the plant needed to accommodate the increasing flow surcharges and maintain concrete protection to treat the accruing wastes. Further, the previous open-bay headworks channel tended to accumulate large volumes of debris during low flow conditions, blocking the headworks area and reducing the flow capacity of the entire plant.
To address this, the utility installed parabolic concrete channels with standard reinforcing steel and concrete forms. The uniquely-shaped design resembled a tear drop, helping to maximize the velocity of the inflowing sewage even at low-flow conditions, effectively keeping the channel clean with little to no accumulation of debris. Plastic liners were used to create the teardrop shapes.
The concrete was supplied by Eastern Concrete and treated with PENETRON ADMIX (integral crystalline waterproofing admixture) to protect against the chemicals in the waste. Since installing the product, the upgraded facility has been able to better accommodate increasing waste flows as well as meet environmental regulations at a higher standard than before.
Used primarily in water-related settings, such as reservoirs, swimming pools, tunnel and subway systems, and underground vaults, PENETRON ADMIX produces a sealant that prevents fluids from penetrating or deteriorating the concrete, making it ideal for wastewater applications.
The admixture consists of Portland cement, very fine treated silica sand, and various active, proprietary chemicals added to the concrete mix at the time of batching. These active chemicals react with the moisture in fresh concrete and with the byproducts of cement hydration to cause a catalytic reaction, generating a non-soluble crystalline formation throughout the pores and capillary tracts of the concrete.
