Why Aeration Alone Won’t Make My Lagoon Odor Go Way?
Why Aeration Alone Won’t Make My Lagoon Odor Go Way? Here’s the situation. You have just purchased, or recommended, the company purchase, an expensive aeration system to take care of your lagoon odor problems. After all, the salesman said it would work. He explained that aerobic bacteria don’t create those nasty H2S odors, anaerobic bacteria do. So by simply adding aeration, you’ll change the environment in the lagoon. And Presto – Rotten Egg Odor Gone. No more neighbors complaining about lagoon odor. So you spend the money, install the aeration system and turn it on. Unfortunately, the odor problem doesn’t go away. IT GETS WORSE! An Overwhelming stench of hydrogen sulfide fills the air and your nostrils. The installer says not to worry, it will get better over time. So what just happened? Why didn’t the lagoon odor go away with aeration? First, we’ll need to talk about the microenvironmental situation in the lagoon. In a typical wastewater lagoon, the wastewater stratifies. In other words, some of the water floats and some sinks. Because of this, only the top layer of the wastewater lagoon receives oxygen. As a consequence, obligate anaerobes ( bacteria that cannot survive in the presence of oxygen) proliferate in the lagoon. Obligate anaerobes (bacteria that...