The firm’s waste water design experience covers major municipal treatment facilities ranging from sand filters to stabilization ponds, to aerated lagoons, to activated sludge.

TREATMENT: A.E. Hodsdon's philosophy to design is to leave the community with the simplest technology that will treat the waste. In many rural communities this is a stabilization pond or an aerated lagoon.  When space is a problem, the more complicated activated sludge facilities must be used.

SLUDGE HANDLING: We encourage the simpler technologies instead of the more complex processes.  Land spreading or land injection is still the most cost effective for most rural communities.

COLLECTION: Our policy is to build gravity systems where it is cost effective. Our experience is that public sewers that are deeper than 12 feet are not cost effective. Maine has a high water table and these deep pipes tend to allow much more infiltration with time.  Furthermore, these pipes are expensive to install and maintain.

INTERCEPTOR SEWERS: These designs include gravity runs whenever possible and run along existing road rights-of-way.  These pipes have ranged in size from 8" to 30" diameter and again we try to keep the depth at less than 12 feet.

PUMP STATIONS: Our pump station designs have ranged in size from 100 gpm to 1200 gpm. Our designs have used many submersible-pumping arrangements.  A few of the larger pump stations have been with the wet well/dry well design. Our policy is to begin evaluating the need for a pump station once the depth of the pipe reaches 12 feet.

SMALL SYSTEMS: The firm has been a leader in the design of small community wastewater systems.  We have learned that large gravity collection systems are a problem.  Pressure collection systems have proven themselves for this type of application.