Cover-All Building Ideal for Waste Water Treatment Solution

In 2003, the Village of Bartlett in Illinois purchased four Cover-All® Legend buildings to cover their aerobic digesters at their waste water treatment plant.  Located just 40 miles from Chicago, the facility handles the waste water for 26,000 people residing in three different counties.  "We have twelve individuals employed with the sewer department who take care of the treatment plant as well as nineteen lift stations and the total sewer system within the Village of Bartlett," says Ron Johnson, Waste Water Supervisor.  "This treatment plant is considered a medium to large size treatment facility."

The four Cover-All® Legend buildings are 62' wide x 90' long and cover two sludge tanks each.  "One of the problems we had in the past was controlling the temperatures during the winter as well as containing odors.  Since we have had the Cover-All buildings, we've been able to hold the heat in during the winter so the bacteria can do its job and we no longer have odor complaints from nearby residential areas," says Johnson.  "The aerobic digesters take in sludge from two parts of our facility.  One part is the waste activated sludge from the activated sludge system, and the other is the primary  sludge from the primary clarifiers.  The basic operation of the clarifiers is to stabilize the organic matters in the sludge.  From here we take it to a  sludge press and put onto farm fields."

The Village of Bartlett chose Cover-All because of the building's ability to perform in a corrosive moist environment.  The galvanized steel frame system is clad with a triple-coated anti-corrosion barrier and a Gatorshield coating.  the polyolefin characteristic of the Cover-All® DuraWeave® membrane is inert to ammonia gasses and is not biodegradable.  "We looked at a PVC system that was designed to completely cover the digesters, but that would have caused us problems of getting to the sludge for sampling, temperature readings, etcetera," says Johnson.  "We also looked at aluminum and corrugated steel structures, but the high moisture levels in this type of environment would quickly deteriorate metal structures.  We designed each of the Cover-All buildings to have a side access so we could open it up to lower a hoist down within the tank, clean the digesters or install equipment."

Another benefit with the Cover-All® Legend® buildings is the translucent qualities of the fabric membrane.  "We don't need any natural lighting in the Cover-All buildings, nor do we require the installation of explosive proof fixtures or personnel needing to change light bulbs.  The white cover provides us more than enough natural light inside the building, even on gray and overcast days.  The Cover-All building system is working very well for us; the building is not going to deteriorate and it's pretty much maintenance free," says Johnson.