Wastewater from homes and businesses is transported through the District’s sewer collection system, by gravity and through pump stations, to one of our three Wastewater Treatment Plants.

Pre Treatment

At the plant, wastewater flows through bar screens where trash and debris are removed.

Wastewater then flows into a grit chamber where grit, mostly sand and eggshells, is removed.  The grit is then dewatered and taken to a landfill for disposal.

Primary Treatment

The wastewater then flows to Primary Clarifiers where floating fats, oils and vegetable matter (referred to as scum), is skimmed off the water surface and sludge, primarily organic material, settles to the bottom.  The sludge and scum removed in the primary sedimentation process are pumped to dewatering presses.

Secondary Treatment

From the primary process, the wastewater, which still contains dissolved solids and organic material, flows into Trickling Filters. The water is trickled over media which enables the formation of slimes or Biomass, which contains organisms that feed upon and remove wastes from the water.

The wastewater then flows to Secondary Clarifiers, where sloughed off biomass from the Trickling filters sinks to the bottom of the tank as Humus sludge, which is then pumped off to be mixed with primary sludge prior to dewatering. At this stage, the water coming off the top of the Secondary Clarifiers has had more than 95 percent of it’s impurities removed.

Effluent Disposal

Following denitrification, wastewater is pumped through a 10 mile outfall pipeline to the District’s Effluent Management Site in Hesperia where the water flows onto the land, recharging underground aquafers of the Mojave River basin.

Solids Handling and Disposal

The Primary and Humus sludges removed in Primary and Secondary treatment are thickened and then dewatered in presses. The dewatered sludge, referred to as Bio Solids, is transported by District dump truck and personnel to a Bio Solids composting site in Redlands, Ca, where Bio Solids are combined with green waste to produce a fertilizer product.