Investigation of Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant

One Bottling Industry discharged their wastewater (WW) to the municipal wastewater treatment plant. The Industry was regulated by the City as a Pretreatment Industrial User (IU) under the authority vested on the City by the Federal and State Environmental Protection Agencies (EPA).

Problems

The Industry complaint about paying too much fees to the City as IU. On investigation, it was found that :

1. The holding tank which holds the mixture of industrials and domestic (bathroom) WW before the mixed WW overflows to the City's collection system and was creating septic conditions.
2. The City charged the Industry based on bio-chemical demand (BOD) and total suspended solids (TSS) multiplied by the total volume of WW.
3. The septic condition of mixed WW in the holding tank was contributing to high BOD and TSS numbers.

Consultant Solutions

1. The use of holding tank, which was creating septic condition, was eliminated.
2. The domestic WW was separated from industrial WW.
3. Dumping of unused material which contributed to high BOD number was minimized by using best management practice (BMP) and total quality management ( TQM).
4. Arrangements were made with the City to pay separately for domestic WW and industrial WW. The cost was reduced from $700,000.00 per year to expected $ 200,000.00 per year.

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