Septembe 8, 2017 – The Indiana Water Environment Association (IWEA) honored the Fort Wayne City Utilities’ Biosolids and Composting Facility with the 2017 Residuals & Resource Recovery Award for Excellence in Operating.
Fort Wayne’s award recognizes the facility for being cost-effective, environmentally safe and for providing residents with a product that recycles nutrients, improves soil conditions, and conserves natural resources.
IWEA touted Fort Wayne’s operation as effective in utilizing residuals form both the Water Pollution Control (sewage treatment) Plant and Three Rivers Water Filtration Plant and providing a viable resource to residents. The biosolids product combines cleaned and treated material from the sewage treatment process with composted leaves from the City’s annual leaf collection program and yard waste from a residential drop-off program.
Tomorrow, September 9, the 582 acre facility will be open to all residents of Allen County who wish to dispose of yard and garden waste, tree branches, brush and grass clippings free of charge. Residents can bring waste in biodegradable bags but plastic bags will not be accepted nor will large tree stumps. Smaller stumps must be free of debris. The facility will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at 6202 Lake Avenue.
Again, the drop-off is free tomorrow and will save Allen County residents the normal charge for disposal of $17 per ton. The free disposal is for residential disposal only commercial customers must still pay their usual disposal fee.
In the spring, composted product and mulch is available to residents for free if they load it themselves or a small fee if loaded by the facility staff.
Biosolids Facility by the Number:
- 582 acre operation
- 27,000 dry tons of Class A biosolids were distributed to users per year
- 27 tons of waste-activated sludge received from wastewater treatment plant per day
- 9,500 tons of leaves dropped off per year
- 3,500 tons of yard waste dropped off per year
- 5,000 tons of brush dropped off per year
- 8,000 tons of grit received per year
- 50,000 tons of lime distributed per year