September 28, 2015
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The City of Levelland has partnered with a company to transform wastewater into ethanol products.
Diamond Ethanol uses treated water from the city to help manufacture ethanol.
Amy Northam, Levelland's Director of Waste Water Services, said the city provides 10 million gallons of water to the company each month, and 24 million gallons are used for local irrigation.
"The wastewater comes into the plant, it goes through, and is treated like a natrual pond system," she said. "Once it gets through there, then it gets through the ethanol system. They have a clarifier that'll settle out any more of the solids that are there. They disinfect the water for any bacteriologicals and then they run it through a membrane, or reverse osmosis process, which cleans it up even further."
Northam said the water usage has generally been unaffected by gas prices, or the cost to produce corn.
"In the summer time of course with it being hot, and less rain and stuff like that, they do take a little bit more water than they do in the winter time," she said.
According to Northam, most people have misconceptions about recycling waste water.
"Everybody thinks, "Okay, I flushed my toilet, now I'm going to go to the kitchen and get a glass of green, brown, yucky stuff," she said. "But, it's kind of a misnomer, because it goes get treated."
"One of the problems... [that we have] is what we call fats, oils, and grease," she said. "A lot of people will rinse the grease off of hamburger meat and rise it down the drain. And of course the oils that come off our body, and lotions, and shampoos, and things like that. And all of that builds up in our lines and it causes problems for us. When we get a big slug of it to come in and come through, it's a little bit more difficult for us to treat."
"We stick with the "Three P's" when we tell people to flush. Pee, poo, paper. That's it."
Northam said Texas' drought conditions in recent years has helped make the state more conscious of water conservation. She said if each resident did his or her part, the state could greatly benefit on saving fresh water resources.
"Don't just put out your hose out there and let it run, fix your leaks, fix your leaky faucets, things like that. That'll help all of us in the long run," she said.