Treatment Studies of
Combined Textile and Domestic Wastes
DONALD T. LAURIA, Project Engineer
O'Brien and Gere
Syracuse, New York
CHARLES A. WILLIS, Managing Engineer
O'Brien and Gere
Charlotte, North Carolina
INTRODUCTION
When the consulting engineer is faced with the problem of designing adequate
treatment facilities for wastes with unique characteristics, it often becomes necessary to precede design with detailed pilot plant studies. Usually, the most basic
purpose of the pilot plant is to determine the treatability of the wastes; that is, to
determine whether required BOD and other waste constituent reductions may be
obtained by means of the contemplated treatment process. However, another important purpose of pilot plant studies is to obtain criteria which may be used in the
design of the full-scale treatment plant. Such criteria provide for proper selection
and most economical sizing of facilities while assuring the required treatment.
It is for both of these reasons that a pilot plant waste treatment study was
undertaken of the combined domestic and textile wastes from the Town of Valdese,
North Carolina.
TOWN OF VALDESE WASTE DISPOSAL PROBLEM
The Town of Valdese is located in Catawba County about 12 miles west of
Hickory. Within the town are several textile and hosiery mills, a furniture plant
and a large commercial bakery. In addition, three schools and a large hospital
are located in the area. The present daytime population of the town is estimated
to be 6, 000 persons. Because of rapid growth in the area, it is estimated that
within 20 years the population will increase by a factor of approximately 50 per
cent.   A map of the" town of Valdese is shown in Figure 1.
Aqueous wastes produced in the town include domestic sewage and industrial
process wastes. The industrial wastes are produced primarily in the dyeing and
finishing operations of the textile mills. These textile wastes account for greater
than 80 per cent of the total waste flow from the town. All of the town's domestic
sewage drains to two existing sewage treatment plants, but the larger of the two is
not of sufficient capacity for present sewage flows and is virtually inoperable. All
of the town's significant industrial wastes are presently discharged to the same
drainage area served by this inadequate sewage treatment plant. It is necessary
that adequate waste treatment be provided for both the sewage and the industrial
wastes in this area, requiring the construction of industrial waste sewers and new
treatment works.
The combined flow of the sewage and wastes considered in this study presently
amounts to approximately two million gals per day, and within 20 years it is estimated that the total combined flow will be nearly four million gals per day. A
significant factor regarding waste flow is that the industries in town operate only
six days a week, and on Sundays, no industrial waste is produced.
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