FPUD wins Award of Excellence for recycling device

FALLBROOK — Just as “going green” seems to be on everyone’s mind these days, the Fallbrook Public Utility District (FPUD) just won the prestigious Award of Excellence from the American Society of Civil Engineers for its new process that recycles sewage sludge into Class A biosolid.

The May 17 award was given to the district for being the first community of its size to convert sludge into nutrient-rich fertilizer, instead of trucking it off and dumping it into a landfill. The district was also praised for the fact that air emissions and soaring costs associated with hauling truckloads of heavy, wet sludge to landfills have been eliminated.

Sludge is the semisolid, slushy organic material that remains after wastewater is treated. In February, the high-tech machinery began recycling it at FPUD’s wastewater treatment plant off Alturas Road into a safe and renewable resource.

By heating the sludge to very high temperatures – between 226 and 276 degrees –harmful pathogens are killed. The end product is nutrient-rich granules, classified as an “organic amendment” by soil and plant laboratories, which can be safely returned to the soil. FPUD is selling all the fertilizer produced to a local grower.

The environmentally conscious decision to turn sludge into fertilizer came about as the cost of hauling the sludge out of the county has been skyrocketing. FPUD was spending $150,000 per year to haul its sludge to Riverside County, but that location is set to close and the nearest site is Kern County or out of state. But the cost of trucking sludge to those sites would be significantly higher and are expected to continue rising.

“It’s such an honor that this project was recognized,” said Mike Page, engineering manager for FPUD. “In today’s environment, this is absolutely the right thing to do.”

The equipment is worth more than $1 million but the machinery will save FPUD even more than that in the long run. FPUD will recoup the cost of the machinery by the year 2014 from the new revenue and expenses it no longer has to pay.

Submitted by Fallbrook Public Utility District.