Meters to monitor hydrogen sulfide gas levels in sewer lines will be installed on the eastern side of the City of Washington. The city has received odor complaints over the last few months and has investigated the issue. City Administrator Brent Hinson said Iowa Renewable Energy’s wastewater is contributing to the issue and has been collaboratively working with the city to address the odor. Hinson explained what causes the issue, “We’ve been trying to do this from a cooperative angle, to work with them. I think they’ve been very good at working with us, but they do have the side of this to say, ‘Hey, when it leaves our plant you don’t have hydrogen sulfide gas.’ It’s only because it’s a very long stretch of relatively flat pipe that doesn’t have anything else there mixing in with it that this is happening. There’s system reasons why this is being created that really are unavoidable for us and all we can do is try to deal with the problems cooperatively that we have here and work towards a solution.”

Due to the distance between Iowa Renewable Energy and the city’s wastewater treatment plant, Hinson said they don’t expect any impact on the city facility. Hinson said there is a way to neutralize it, “We’re going to use what’s called peracetic acid as kind of something that will be injected into that effluent flow to neutralize the smell. And basically what peracetic acid does is it just, it’s what’s called a surfactant, it cleanses the pipe, it prevents any buildup from creating hydrogen sulfide gas in the water.” Hinson said IRE is going to pilot this effort and if it works then they’ll establish a permanent injection point.

The three meters to monitor the gas is estimated to cost $6,500 to purchase or $3,500 to rent for about two months. Staff have been directed to purchase meters. Those three meters will collect data on the gasses and help the city staff and council make future decisions.