Advancing Regional Sewage Sludge Treatment Facility

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 31st that it will advance the construction of a regional facility to treat sewage sludge generated from sewage treatment plants throughout the province.

The province plans to jointly construct a regional sewage sludge treatment facility with a daily processing capacity of 3,039 tons at the Gimpo Metropolitan Landfill by 2010 in phases with the Ministry of Environment, Seoul, Incheon, and the Metropolitan Landfill Management Corporation.

Gyeonggi Province's sewage sludge intake is projected to account for 45.5% of the entire regional facility's total processing capacity, reaching 1,384 tons by 2010.

As the first phase project, construction of a solidification treatment facility with a 1,000-ton daily processing capacity is planned by early 2008. In the first phase, the province's daily sewage sludge discharge will be 400 tons.

Based on the proportion of sewage sludge intake, three provincial governments will share the project costs, with Gyeonggi Province bearing 14.8 billion won out of 38 billion won in total first-phase project costs, including national funding.

The solidification treatment facility processes sewage sludge in a semi-liquid state by mixing it with chemicals and undergoing exothermic and curing processes to produce a soil-like, odor-free material that is recycled as a cover material for waste at the Metropolitan Landfill.

The second phase project is under review for introduction of drying and carbonization treatment facilities with a 2,039-ton capacity by 2010.

Based on the daily sewage sludge generation of 1,918 tons as of end of 2005, the province anticipates the volume will increase to 3,102 tons by 2010 and plans to process it through the regional facility handling 1,384 tons, incineration 893 tons, recycling 824 tons, and landfill disposal 1 ton.

Following the revision of the Marine Pollution Prevention Act, ocean dumping of sewage sludge from sewage and water purification processes will be fundamentally prohibited from 2011 onwards.