The Lafayette Renew Laboratory is staffed by two Lab Technicians and one Lab Chief. The Lab assists the Operations department by monitoring daily treatment efficiency, and works with the Surveillance department to monitor local industry discharges into the City's sanitary waste system.
The Lab operates 7 days each week, and typically performs 57 tests daily on 34 separate samples for the Operations department. Tests performed on plant samples taken from the system inflow, primary treatment effluent, and final treatment effluent include: Total Solids (TS), Volatile Solids (VS), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Volatile Suspended Solids (VSS), Settleable Solids, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), E. coli, Ammonia, Phosphorous, Residual Chlorine, Total Nitrogen, and pH. Respiration rates of the aeration tanks are measured regularly. The results of these tests serve as a trending indicator of the plant’s effectiveness at treating sanitary wastewater. For metals, such as copper, chromium, lead, and mercury, the Lab prepares influent and effluent samples for analysis by contract laboratories. The lab at Lafayette Renew is also responsible for analyzing river, creek, and ditch samples on a routine basis in order to monitor water quality in our area.
Raw sludge, digested sludge, storage tank and field-applied biosolids are tested for pH, total solids, and volatile solids. Storage tank and land application solids are composited, retained, and prepared for third-party testing of metals and nutrients.