When constructing a land based waste treatment system,
economics plays a huge role in the design process. Many
decisions are based solely on the costs incurred initially
in the construction process. It is difficult to convince
local and state governments to partition large amounts of money
before the waste treatment plant is up and running. Many
communities are not willing to invest in a project without some
hard evidence of it's benefits. The following example shows
the development costs for the Muskegon Wastewater System in
Illinois. This plant employs 40 full-time employees and 10
part-time employees. The design allows initial treatment,
application to a agriculture plots of corn or wheat, and
collection of the water which moves through the system for
recirculation. I will use this example throughout the
discussion to make certain points regarding the economic concerns
when dealing with land based treatment.
Component |
Cost( in millions of dollars) |
| COLLECTION | $ 5.2 |
| TRANSMISSION | $ 6.8 |
| PRE-APPLICATION TREATMENT
(AERATION) |
$ 3.1 |
| STORAGE | $ 5.2 |
| LAND & RELOCATION (TOTAL) | $ 8.5 |
| 1) PURCHASING | $ 5.4 |
| 2) RELOCATION | $ 1.2 |
| 3) CLEARING | $ 1.9 |
| DISTRIBUTION--IRRIGATION | $ 4.1 |
| RECOVERY--DRAINAGE | $ 3.7 |
| INTEREST & ENGINEERING | $ 3.8 |
| OTHER | $ 2.3 |
| TOTAL MUSKEGON SITE | $ 42.7 |
| TOTAL CAPITAL COST | $43.5 |
| NON-CAPITALIZED COST | $ 1.0 |
TOTAL SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT COSTS |
$ 43.7 |
Muskegon County invested 16 million
dollars toward this project's development costs while the state
invested 8.4 million and the remaining 20.1 million was
contributed by the EPA from federal funds. In the
relocating process 190 families and 4 businesses were relocated
to other sites in the community.
The operating costs of a treatment plant
is interwoven with the design of the plant and the level of
treatment desired. This plant in Illinois is a good design for
treating wastewater and reaches a fairly high level of
treatment. The following charts shows the gross
operating costs of the Muskegon Wastewater System.
| COLLECTION AND TRANSMISSION | $ 431,000 |
| AERATION & STORAGE | $ 191,000 |
| IRRIGATION & DRAINAGE | $ 475,000 |
| FARMING | $ 474,000 |
| LABORATORY & MONITORING | $ 236,000 |
| OTHER | $ 77,000 |
| TOTAL GROSS OPERATING | $ 1,884,000 |
| SALARIES AND WAGES | $ 622,000 |
| UTILITIES | $ 547,000 |
| MATERIALS & CONTRACTUAL SERVICES | $ 534,000 |
| ADMINISTRATIVE | $ 154,000 |
| DEPRECIATION | $ 89,000 |
| TOTAL GROSS OPERATING | $ 1,884,000 |
As you can see by the previous charts, the operating costs are less than 5% of the total development costs. The process used here is to take the waste and apply it to fields of corn and wheat here on site. The plant makes $698,000 on the corn production and $8,000 on the wheat production. After this is taken of the yearly operating costs the plant loses $1,224,000 a year following this process. This loss doesn't take into account the hypothetical losses they would incur if they were to landfill the sludges produced here. The cost to landfill the enormous amounts of waste collected here would be much greater to the community and to the environment.
With the extremely high
cost from the initial investment, many communities are not
willing to develop a similar design process. Many
municipalities are not willing to invest high dollar amounts to
see small returns over many years. The reduced cost of
landfilling waste doesn't stand out because it is an
investment in the future. Today's society wants
quick, easy decisions that will show returns immediately.