Special Guest Lecture:
Dickie Fernández
Friday, October 11
11:00 a.m. in Rockwell West 105

Abstract

Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery at OC SAN

The Orange County Sanitation District (OC SAN) serves a population of approximately 2.6 million people in the northern half of Orange County, California. On a typical day it will receive 180 million gallons of sewer for treatment. This interactive presentation will show how OC SAN provides treatment to produce 130 million gallons of potable water, uses the biosolids for non-food crop applications, generates enough electricity to power a city of 50,000 people and is a world leader in environmental stewardship.

This lecture/presentation will discuss the following topics:

  • Primary and secondary wastewater treatment
  • Microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light disinfection
  • Capture of methane gas for power generation
  • Applications of biosolids
  • Pipelines and pump stations

Note to CSU faculty: The presentation is intended to provide broad strokes of OC SAN, highlighting its leading approach to resource recovery. The intent is for the presentation to be interactive and engaging students with questions along the way. It’s best suited for environmental and civil engineering students, however I welcome anyone to attend.

Portrait of Dickie Fernandez.

Biography

Birger "Dickie" Fernández, PE, BCEE
Senior Engineer, Orange County Sanitation District

Dickie Fernández is a Senior Engineer at OC SAN (Orange County Sanitation District). He has 25 years of experience specializing in trenchless design and construction techniques such as cured-in-place pipe, chemical grout injection, pipe bursting and various types of sewer manhole rehabilitation.  Dickie is a registered professional engineer in California, a board-certified environmental engineer and holds various certifications related to sewer design, construction and maintenance. He is passionate about developing and mentoring young engineers, proud to be a CSU ram and in his time off enjoys long distance cycling and backpacking in the wilderness.