COLLECTION SYSTEM

Service Area

The wastewater system service area is located primarily within the Kingsville city limits.

The Wastewater Department's Maintenance of Lines and Construction Activities consist of 8 personnel with a combined annual operating budget of about $550,000 thousand. The City of Kingsville wastewater collection system consists of over 90.9 miles of sanitary sewer and 9 lift stations. The collection system consists of a myriad of clay, concrete, ductile iron and PVC lines ranging in size from 4" (for service lines) to 60" in diameter (for trunk mains). City Wastewater forces assume the responsibility of maintenance, repair and rehabilitation for every aspect of the wastewater collection system except for that portion on private property. On an annual basis, wastewater forces respond to approximately 840 calls, install clean-outs, repair, replace or rehabilitate about 71 manholes, and clean over  feet of wastewater mains.

Wastewater Treatment Plant

The Wastewater Treatment Plant’s consists of 11 personnel, with a current annual operating budget of about $ 750,000. This group's responsibility and purpose is to operate and maintain the City's 9 wastewater lift stations and to maintain all equipment and facilities required to keep the City's 2 wastewater treatment plants in operation. The workload required for maintenance and operation of lift stations for the last 12 months includes approximately 4,800 preventive maintenance work orders and/or inspections and approximately 1700 actual work orders for repairs of equipment or facilities. The workload required for maintenance of the treatment plants for the last 12 months includes approximately 1600 preventive maintenance work orders and/or inspections and approximately 1400 actual work orders for repairs of equipment or facilities.

PRETREATMENT

The City of Kingsville’s Pretreatment Program operates in accordance with a federal law requiring publicly owned treatment works to regulate the volume and character of non-domestic wastes treated by the system. Many industries produce wastewater from manufacturing processes that may not be compatible with normal domestic wastewater treatment technology. In these cases, the industries are required to pre-treat their wastes to an acceptable level prior to discharging them into the City system.

The Kingsville Pretreatment Program is currently staffed with four full time personnel. A pretreatment coordinator oversees the activities of two inspectors and one laboratory assistant. The inspectors both hold class "B" Wastewater Operator Certificates from the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, and the laboratory assistant holds a class "C" Certificate.

The program regulates and issues permits to major industries defined as "Significant Industrial Users," as well as numerous smaller industries that have a potential to impact the wastewater treatment system. In addition, all restaurants are inspected and sampled on a rotating basis to determine the strength of wastes from food preparation activities and to make sure that grease interceptor units are functioning and maintained properly. Restaurants are then surcharged for the additional cost involved with treating their high strength wastes.

Finally, the pretreatment program operates a sampling and analysis program that tracks the presence of toxic or incompatible pollutants in the treatment system. Analyses are regularly performed that indicate concentrations of dissolved heavy metals, organic chemicals, and pesticides. Sources of these pollutants are actively investigated and source reductions or controls are implemented wherever possible. Effluent toxicity tests are performed as well to help identify sources of toxic materials that cannot be specifically identified.

WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Treatment of wastewater is actually a remarkably simple process that utilizes very basic physical, biological, and chemical principles to remove contaminants. Use of mechanical or physical systems to treat wastewater is generally referred to as primary treatment, and use of biological processes to provide further treatment is referred to as secondary treatment. Advanced secondary treatment usually involves applying chemical systems in addition to biological ones, such as injecting chlorine to disinfect the water.

WASTEWATER TREATMENT TOUR