Duane McKee, executive director at the Butler Area Sewer Authority, with the final product at the sewer plant. Solids are mixed with limestone after processing and taken to a landfill.

BUTLER TWP — A tour of the Butler Area Sewer Authority plant on Litman Road and a presentation on the state of authority infrastructure in the communities served shows that many and varied upgrades are needed.

A tour of the 60-year-old plant and a tutorial on all its phases on Thursday revealed that surprisingly few chemicals are used before the liquid byproduct of the naturally processed sewage is discharged into the Connoquenessing Creek across from Cleveland Cliffs.

Duane McKee, BASA executive director, said minimal chlorine is added in the initial stages of processing, and a polymer is introduced to tanks during the separation phase.

After separation and aeration occurs in several steps, the remaining liquid is pumped into a trickling filter tank, where the liquid trickles through 10 to 12 feet of limestone that continues to efficiently and naturally clean the liquid, even after being in place for 25 years.

Items that should not have been flushed are removed, and the solids are removed, drained, mixed with lime and dropped into a dumpster that is taken to a landfill.

“Twenty-four/seven, it never stops running,” McKee said of the plant.

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