ANY WAY YOU LOOK AT IT

The sewer ponds for Buffalo and many other towns with similar waste water treatment programs work because of evaporation. By design, the waste water (sewage) is to be contained within the ponds. The waste water is not allowed to spill over, seep through the ground, or drain from the impoundments. Sewage is treated or processed by allowing evaporation to remove the liquid from the surface of the ponds into the air - our atmosphere while compounds other than liquid are drawn, via gravity, to the bottom of the ponds.

Statistics show that Northwest Oklahoma has a pan evaporation rate of 90 inches per year. Every year, with the heat from the sun, and with our omnipresent wind, surface water in Northwest Oklahoma evaporates at a rate of approximately 90 inches annually.

If you put water in a one inch deep pan, it would have to be refilled 90 times during the year to keep it wet at all times.
Mother Nature will be putting her average annual rainfall in that pan also. But, statistics show that only 90% of her rainwater actually falls into the pan. Statistics also show that the Buffalo area has an annual rainfall of 28.28 inches per year. Using 90% of that rainfall average is equal to 25.46 inches of rain going into the pan throughout the year.
In summary, with 90 inches of drying capability from our arid, Northwest Oklahoma region, minus the 25.46 inches of rain that will fall into the pan means you would have to put 64.54 inches of water in the pan to keep it wet throughout the year.
Looking at it from a different viewpoint, if you had a full pan that was 90 inches deep filled with water and you did not put any more water in it throughout the year, it would evaporate down 64.54 inches in an average year.
The 64.54 inches of evaporation is part of the equation to determine the proper size of any wastewater treatment pond or lagoon in our area.

The next factor is the amount of liquid that needs to be treated/processed. This is usually based on a daily flow rate to the sewer ponds. There are different methods of evaluating the amount of waste reaching the treatment facility. One is number of houses being served. If you estimate that there are about 600 homes within the Town of Buffalo depositing sewage into the system then you can come up with an estimated number of gallons going to the sewer ponds every day.

Studies show that there are about 2.5 people per house. Each person uses about 100 gallons of water per day. Remember, that with the exception of watering your lawn in the summer or the occasional car wash (taken into consideration when compiling this data) all 100 gallons goes down the various drains into the sewer lines and to the wastewater treatment facility. 600 X 2.5 X 100 = 150,000 gallons per day.

Or the latest census could be used. Population for Buffalo = 1200 people X 100 gallons each = 120,000 gallons per day.

Another option is to use the metered water going to each house during the 3 cold months of December, January, and February wherein virtually all the water in one’s home is both used and drained into the sewer system. That estimate based on the last 4 year average was around 3.6 million gallons per month for Buffalo water users. Using 30 days in a month that also equals = 120,000 gallons per day.

The latest DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) inspection report has an approximate flow estimate of 86,000 gallons per day.

Depending on how you look at it 150,000 gallons, 120,000 gallons, 120,000 gallons, and 86,000 gallons are some possible figures to take forward to the formula to check the needed surface size of the lagoons.

Using a formula that computes the number of surface acres that would be needed - there is enough information to determine the proper size lagoons to treat/process Buffalo’s sewage. The formula is (Gallons per day X 0.0134) divided by inches of evaporation.

Anywhere from 18 to 31 surface acres is needed at this time to handle the flow that is going to the current sewage plant (waste water treatment) ponds or lagoons.

Using aerial photos one can measure the shape of each individual pond or cell of Buffalo’s treatment facility. Adding up the square footage within the perimeters of them and converting that to acres equals 13. Right now the total possible surface area in acres for the 7 ponds/lagoons/cells of the treatment facility is about 13 acres. There are only 13 acres of possible evaporation if all of the lagoons had something in them.
(Therein lies the problem – only 1 1/2 or give or take ½ - Ok, for the sake of argument, let's say 2 ponds/lagoons have anything in them.)

With the known formula - the daily flow capability of the ponds/lagoons can be calculated using 13 acres.
13 x 64.54 / 0.0134 = 62,613.43 gallons per day. (Rounded to 63,000 for easier math)
Based on the current size of the treatment lagoons, Buffalo’s water treatment facility can only actually process/treat 63,000 gallons of waste water per day on the average.

Using the high and low estimated daily flows to the lagoons and subtracting the actual processing based on its real size anyone can easily see that there is a capacity issue.
Depending on what daily inflow is used 23,000 to 87,000 gallons are not being processed.

When the Department of Commerce addressed the Buffalo 2010 committee a couple of years ago, the members of Buffalo 2010 were told that the sewer plant here in Buffalo was at 100% capacity. Those in attendance were stunned. They couldn’t believe it – that group was assembled by the people. The leaders of Buffalo 2010 were elected by the citizens in attendance (upwards of 90 people) to take Buffalo into the future, to attempt to bring commerce and improvements to Buffalo.
How could the Buffalo 2010 group improve commerce or bring housing to Buffalo Oklahoma when the capacity of the Town’s waste water treatment facility was at 100%?
Sorry, Mister Big Time Factory Person, we can’t allow you to move your giant factory and your 200 employees to Buffalo because our Town can’t handle another toilet being flushed or another mouth to be cleaned using a toothbrush and running water because we’re at 100% capacity!

Since 23,000 to 87,000 gallons are not being processed, the ponds/lagoons fill up higher than they are either built for or have capacity to hold. DEQ rules state that the distance from the top of the lagoon cells to the top surface of the water is not to be less than 3 feet. This is referred to as freeboard. The freeboard allows for the fluctuation of the weather throughout the year. So in the winter, when not as much can evaporate, the ponds fill up towards the top. Again it is not supposed to fill up so high that it gets within 3 feet of the top at any time during the year. But in the summer it should go back down during the hot and windy days. So by design, each lagoon should have enough safeguard in its design capacity, that it never gets within 3 feet of the top of the embankment or dikes.
DEQ reports on Buffalo's Sewer facilities confirm that the freeboard at times has been less than 3 foot and several times came to within 1 foot of reaching the top of the dikes. (time for some creative landscaping) Waste water is never supposed to get within three feet of the top of the dikes.

By carefully considering these facts, it's easy to see why Buffalo's wastewater treatment facility is beyond full capacity.
Doubters don’t think this to be the case.

As is, how much growth potential does this system have?
As is, how many new families can be brought online to the system?
As is, will there be plenty of room in the lagoons to handle a developer building new houses or apartments?
As is, how much room is there for any industrial or business growth that may need to utilize the treatment facility?

Any way you look at it, it is time to deal with the truth. Buffalo needs a new waste water treatment facility.