Tinker Public Affairs -- Waste water isn't something that immediately comes to mind when you think of the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center. But for the people at Tinker's Industrial Waste Water Treatment Plant, it's a commodity that is always on their minds. And they have plenty of it to stay busy. 
    
Each day almost a million gallons of waste water flow into the plant, laden with chemicals and heavy metals. The 20 people at the plant have just one goal: produce clean water as best as possible. 
    
With almost every shop east of the north-south runway discharging waste, it's no small task, and one that perhaps gets less attention in its contribution to the base mission. But without their efforts the show couldn't go on. 
    
Freddie Hall, an environmental engineer with the 72nd Air Base Wing Civil Engineering Directorate, has called the waste water plant his professional home for 10 years. 
    
When he arrived on the scene, the plant needed a lot of work, he recalls. But now, with a streamlined process that's cut down on operating costs by more than $1 million per year, the plant is running smoother and yielding cleaner water with a fraction of the cost. 
    
"We really turned it from a sow's ear to a silk purse," Mr. Hall said. "It's been a real big success story here."
    
It takes about four days for water to flow through the six-acre plant as heavy metals are removed such as cadmium, zinc, nickel, tin, silver, lead, chromium and others. A three-stage work flow, composed of 14 processes removes about 95 percent of the heavy metals, before the treated water is routed to municipal waste water plants in Midwest City and Oklahoma City. 
    
When he first arrived, the plant was frequently peaking its permit rates, Mr. Hall explained. The water contained significantly more heavy metals than it does now, thanks to their improvements. 
    
Over the past seven years, the plant has also cut back on the amount of sludge -- the untreatable by-product of the filtration process -- produced by 7 million pounds annually, a 92 percent reduction.
    
"Think of it filling (the University of Oklahoma's) Owen Field five stories deep in sludge and that's how much we've been able to defer, to keep it from going to a hazardous waste landfill," Mr. Hall said. 
    
But the waste water employees wouldn't have near the success without the cooperation of people on the other end of the drain. Through conservation efforts, several key waste water contributors have cut their water use drastically, making the job of the plant vastly easier. 
    
The chemical cleaning shop was one such facility that dramatically cut its water use. Over the past two years, they've reduced their waste water output by 50 percent, Mr. Hall said. He expects this trend to continue to other shops the base over.
    
"I like the challenge of it. I like the challenge of solving problems and optimizing processes," he said. "We've tried to run the plant more efficiently and that's what we've done. We just try to make it easier for people in the shops to do their mission."