2008 USDA-CSREES National Water Conference Sparks, NV Analyzing Wastewater Treatment Systems Serving Residential and Commercial Facilities for High Strength and Hydraulic Loading Short Course

Text: On-site wastewater treatment systems serve as the wastewater infrastructure for a variety of facilities. Many of these facilities generate wastewater with constituents at greater quantity than typically described as domestic wastewater. Therefore, the wastewater treatment systems are loaded at wastewater quantities greater than their design and thus not performing as desired. A training course discussing the hydraulic and organic loading to wastewater treatment systems was developed to address this issue. This multi-state effort working through the Consortium of Institutes for Decentralized Wastewater Treatment included cooperative Extension groups in Texas, Minnesota and Rhode Island and private industry representatives from the State of Washington. The final pilot testing event was conduct on June 26-27, 2007. A concurrent train-the-trainer event was conducted on June 26-28, 2007 for instructors interested in implementing the materials through their training program. Five instructors from Missouri, North Carolina and Tennessee attended the training course with the anticipation of using the materials in their respective States. The course participants reported knowledge gained through a retrospective pre- then post test. The training program, training objectives, evaluation instruments and associated responses will be discussed during the presentation.