WtrWrx Services

10/12/2026

Our WtrWrx Team completing a Filter Media Coring Project in a southwestern Arkansas water utility. The filter media samples are going to make a journey back with our team to our laboratory for cleaning and analysis.

Afterwards, we will compile a report to the utility with our findings and any recommendations for helping to extend the life of their filter media.

If you have and questions about your filters, please give WtrWrx Services a call at (618) 570-1031.

10/10/2026

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💧 TREATMENT BY DESIGN: THE BARDENPHO PROCESS

How wastewater treatment plants remove nitrogen and phosphorus through biological treatment

When it comes to modern wastewater treatment, removing suspended solids and organic matter is only part of the job. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus can contribute to eutrophication, algal blooms, and oxygen depletion in receiving waters. That's where advanced biological nutrient removal processes like the Bardenpho process come into play.

🔬 What Is the Bardenpho Process?

Bardenpho is a modified activated sludge process designed to achieve enhanced nitrogen removal and, in appropriate configurations, biological phosphorus removal. It uses a carefully arranged series of anaerobic, anoxic, and aerobic treatment zones to create the conditions microorganisms need to remove nutrients from wastewater.

In a typical five-stage Bardenpho configuration, wastewater moves through:

🔹 1. Anaerobic Zone
Creates conditions that help phosphorus-accumulating organisms release phosphorus, supporting enhanced biological phosphorus removal when the process is properly configured.

🔹 2. First Anoxic Zone
Microorganisms use nitrate as an oxygen source and convert it to nitrogen gas through denitrification. Internal recycle returns nitrate-rich mixed liquor from the aerobic zone to this stage.

🔹 3. First Aerobic Zone
Air supplies oxygen for nitrification, allowing specialized bacteria to convert ammonia into nitrite and then nitrate.

🔹 4. Second Anoxic Zone
Provides another opportunity to remove remaining nitrate through denitrification, helping reduce total nitrogen in the final effluent.

🔹 5. Second Aerobic Zone
Provides final aeration to help polish the treatment process and reduce the potential for unwanted reactions before clarification.

After biological treatment, the mixed liquor flows to a secondary clarifier, where activated sludge settles and clarified effluent moves onward. Return activated sludge helps maintain the biological population, while excess sludge is wasted to control solids inventory.

⚙️ Why Is Bardenpho Important?

The Bardenpho process can help municipalities meet stringent nutrient discharge limits and protect sensitive rivers, lakes, and watersheds. Its performance depends on proper zone sizing, internal recycle rates, dissolved oxygen control, sludge age, carbon availability, and effective process monitoring.

Operators play a critical role. A plant can have a well-designed process, but poor control of aeration, recycling, or sludge wasting can reduce nutrient removal efficiency.

🌎 Treatment by Design Takeaway

The Bardenpho process demonstrates how treatment plant design and microbiology work together. By creating the right environmental conditions in the right sequence, wastewater operators can harness microorganisms to remove nutrients and help protect the environment.

At ERTC, understanding the why behind each treatment zone helps operators make better process-control decisions in the field.

💧 Good design creates the opportunity. Good operation delivers the results.

Learn more about ERTC's water and wastewater training programs at siue.edu/ertc

10/10/2026

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📢 ERTC JOB BOARD: CITY OF LITCHFIELD HIRING WATER DISTRIBUTION & SEWER COLLECTION MANAGER

💧 Looking for your next career opportunity in the water industry?

The City of Litchfield, Illinois, is seeking a Water Distribution & Sewer Collection Manager to oversee the operation and management of the city's water distribution and sewer collection systems.

With an advertised salary of $60,000 per year, this opportunity may appeal to an experienced water or wastewater professional ready to take the next step in their career.

🔧 About the Position

Water distribution and sewer collection systems are essential to protecting public health and maintaining reliable municipal services. The person in this role will help oversee these critical systems and support the infrastructure that residents depend on every day.

This position offers an opportunity to take on leadership responsibilities while contributing directly to the operation of a community's essential water and sewer infrastructure.

📌 Position Details

Position: Water Distribution & Sewer Collection Manager

Employer: City of Litchfield, Illinois

Location: Litchfield, Illinois

Advertised Salary: $60,000 per year

Application Deadline: Open until filled

Applicants should review the official announcement for the complete job description, required qualifications, and application instructions.

📲 Interested in Applying?

Visit the City of Litchfield's official job posting for more information and application details: https://tinyurl.com/2mu8a3xy

Know someone who might be a good fit? Share this opportunity with your professional network!

💧 ERTC Job Board connects water and wastewater professionals with career opportunities throughout the region. Keep watching for more openings in the industry.

10/07/2026

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10/06/2026

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Our Underwater Partners for all of your underwater inspections and service.

Meet our team! Learn about our staff and certified scuba instructors at our Diventures Aquatic Center location in Columbia, MO.

10/05/2026

Helping with the installation of a new water service for a proud home owner. The old service had an outdated meter setter as you can see. We set a new meter setter and ran new plastic service line from the old copper to his new setter.

10/05/2026

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This is a very good paying job. This is a brand new state of the art brass manufacturing facility.

🚨 NOW HIRING: ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNICIAN — EAST ALTON, IL

Looking for a career in water, wastewater, and environmental operations? This is one worth taking a serious look at.

Wieland North America is hiring an Environmental Technician at its East Alton, Illinois facility. The position focuses heavily on the operation, monitoring, and optimization of an industrial wastewater treatment facility.

💰 Salary: $62,000–$75,000 per year
📍 East Alton, IL
📅 Monday–Friday
🏭 Full-time, on-site
👤 1 position available

What will you be doing?

The Environmental Technician will be responsible for the day-to-day operation and monitoring of the industrial wastewater treatment system. Duties include:

• Operating and optimizing wastewater treatment processes
• Monitoring pumps, tanks, piping, instrumentation and controls
• Adjusting chemical feed rates and pH control
• Sludge handling
• Troubleshooting alarms and equipment problems
• Wastewater sampling and laboratory testing
• Environmental inspections and compliance activities
• Permit reporting and environmental documentation
• Managing treatment chemicals and inventory
• Working with maintenance personnel and contractors
• Monitoring SCADA/PLC and process instrumentation

What are they looking for?

Candidates should have a high school diploma or equivalent and at least two years of experience in industrial wastewater, water treatment, environmental compliance, or a related field.

One particularly important requirement for our ERTC audience:

👉 The successful candidate must be able to obtain an Illinois Wastewater Operator Class K license within three months of employment.

Experience with industrial wastewater treatment, environmental regulations, sampling, permits, SCADA/PLC systems, and process instrumentation is a plus.

This is the kind of position that can be a great next step for someone who already has wastewater operating experience and wants to move into a role with more responsibility for treatment processes, environmental compliance, and plant performance.

And at $62,000–$75,000 per year, it's certainly worth a look.

📲 Interested? Scan the QR code on our Job Board graphic to view the full posting or click here: https://tinyurl.com/3ruckx6r

ERTC Job Board — connecting trained water and wastewater professionals with opportunities across the region.

10/02/2026

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🚨 ERTC JOB BOARD: LEAD OPERATOR — STREATOR, ILLINOIS

Veolia is hiring a Lead Operator for a wastewater treatment facility in Streator, Illinois, with a posted pay rate of $37.92 per hour. The position is focused on leading operators and O&M technicians in the operation and maintenance of the wastewater treatment plant.

This is an experienced-operator position with responsibilities that include:

🔹 Operating and monitoring the main control system
🔹 Wastewater process control
🔹 Preventive and corrective maintenance
🔹 Coordinating with maintenance staff
🔹 Cleaning and maintaining process equipment, clarifiers, headworks and centrifuges
🔹 Working with sanitary sewer collection systems and lift stations when required
🔹 Operating equipment such as heavy trucks, forklifts and front-end loaders
🔹 Following plant safety requirements
🔹 Training or assisting with the training of OITs and other assigned personnel

QUALIFICATIONS

Veolia lists the following requirements:

• 8+ years of wastewater treatment plant operation and maintenance experience
• Grade IV or higher Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator Certificate
• Valid driver's license
• Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
• Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent work experience
• Ability to serve as responsible charge of the facility and respond to unplanned events

The posting also lists a benefits package that includes paid time off, health, dental, vision and life insurance, retirement plans, savings accounts, tuition reimbursement and paid volunteer opportunities.

📍 Location: Streator, Illinois
💰 Pay: $37.92/hour
🏭 Position: Lead Operator — Wastewater Treatment
🏢 Employer: Veolia
🆔 Job ID: REF63845T

Interested in applying? The position is posted directly on Veolia's careers site here: https://tinyurl.com/s9h2urvy

View the official Veolia job posting

Know an experienced wastewater operator who might be a good fit? Share this post with them.

10/02/2026

This is going to be a wonderful water treatment facility and will provide decades of reliable service to the community!

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💧 WATER IN THE NEWS
Vandalia, Illinois Builds for the Future with a New Water Treatment Plant

VANDALIA, ILLINOIS — A major water infrastructure project is taking shape in central Illinois as the City of Vandalia constructs a new municipal water treatment plant.

The project has been years in the making. Vandalia's existing water treatment plant dates back to 1951 and has the capacity to produce approximately 2 million gallons of potable water per day, with 2.5 million gallons of storage. The city has been working toward replacing the aging facility for more than a decade.

The new facility is being constructed near Fletcher Street and Sunset Drive and represents an investment of more than $23 million in the community's water infrastructure. Illinois' Rebuild Illinois program is providing $2 million specifically toward the purchase of three water-treatment clarifiers that will be installed as part of the project. The overall construction also includes funding from USDA Rural Development and other sources.

🚰 A New Source-to-Plant Connection

One of the important components of the project is the infrastructure connecting the city's water source to the new facility.

Vandalia's primary water source is Vandalia Lake, and construction has included new raw-water infrastructure to bring water from the lake to the new treatment plant. During an April 2026 construction tour, project engineers reported that crews were working on the lines needed to bring raw water from Vandalia Lake into the new facility.

The project also includes a new intake structure and transmission main. Illinois EPA's Public Water Supply Loan Program identified the project as a New Water Treatment Plant, Transmission Main & Intake Structure and awarded more than $5.36 million, including more than $3.3 million in principal forgiveness.

🏗️ From Planning to Construction

This project didn't happen overnight.

Vandalia officials have been working on the new plant for more than a decade, with planning, funding and design eventually leading to construction beginning in 2025.

By April 2026, project officials reported that construction appeared to be ahead of the original schedule, with the possibility of the plant coming online later that year. By August, city officials continued to report that the project remained on schedule.

The city's current Water & Sewer Department information gives a more conservative anticipated completion timeframe of late 2026 or early 2027.

👷 The Other Side of Infrastructure

A new water treatment plant isn't just about concrete, piping, pumps and treatment equipment.

It also needs trained people to operate it.

As communities replace aging treatment facilities with new infrastructure, water professionals must understand increasingly sophisticated equipment, instrumentation, chemical systems, monitoring requirements and regulatory responsibilities.

That's one reason projects like Vandalia's are important beyond the construction itself.

New infrastructure creates a need for a workforce capable of operating and maintaining it.

For communities across Illinois, replacing aging water infrastructure and developing the people who operate that infrastructure are closely connected challenges.

At ERTC, that's exactly where technical training, hands-on experience and operator education come into the picture.

💧 Building Water Infrastructure. Building the Workforce.

Vandalia's new plant represents a significant investment in the community's ability to provide safe and reliable drinking water for years to come.

But ultimately, every treatment plant depends on people.

The equipment can be new.
The technology can be new.
The building can be new.

Someone still has to know how to run it.

09/30/2026

A metro east surface water treatment plant is going to increase their flow rate from 265 GPM up to 280 GPM. In order to establish new chemical feed set points, we ran some math to calculate the milliliters per minute feed rates for two chemical feed pumps and establish a new milligrams per liter dosage for their carbon.

It's always a good idea to run these calculations and show your work.