Waste Disposal at the
Dana Corporation Plant, Toledo, Ohio
LEON J. PAGE, Project Engineer
Power and Waste Treatment Plants
Spicer Division
Dana Corporation
Toledo, Ohio
Dana Corporation, Toledo Plant, was for years a medium-sized metal machining facility with medium-sized problems in most areas.
With the quickening pace of activity in the automotive production industry,
the Toledo Plant, among others in the Dana Corporation, has tried hard to keep up
with other segments of this huge industrial complex in growth. Needless to say,
growth in size and capability means growth in problem size and in numbers.
The Toledo plants possessed a 2,500,000 gal water reservoir, located centrally and into which were directed most of the roof and yard drains and all of the
industrial waste drains within the plant. The retention time, granted by the
moderate amounts normally discharged to this reservoir, permitted gravitational
separation of most oils, fats and waxes to a reasonably adequate degree.
The occasional inflow of accidental or diluted discharge of metal treatment
or plating chemicals was sufficiently reduced in concentration by the water capacity of this reservoir to render it as moderately contaminating only.
As the suppliers of metal-working and metal-treating chemicals became
more sophisticated in their product and application development, the industrial
waste effluents grew to be more irritating to man and his natural environment.
And, as the Toledo Plant became busier at its job, it took more and larger
amounts of these materials. These improved agents and greater concentrations of
such were emptied into this reservoir and the oil holding capacity of the water was
radically increased. Its increase was so rapid, that half-jokingly, the alternate
use of this reservoir as a fire pump supply service was challenged as possibly supplying fuel to feed the fires of destruction.
It became quite evident to the forward-looking people at Dana Corporation
that a procedure of control would have to be instituted at the Toledo location to do
something about this mess.
The completion of treatment facilities was made at nearly the worst possible
time imaginable, just four days before Christmas, 1963, and in the midst of a
rather severe cold spell. It is, therefore, quite true that we learned our cold
weather operation techniques quite rapidly.
The industrial wastes produced in the metal machining operations at the Toledo Plant, consisting mainly of soluble oils, synthetic machining coolants, metal
cleaning compounds plating and other chemical materials and washer drainings,
are collected at numerous locations throughout the plant and pumped into a collection header. This header discharges into an underground collection tank and
an adjacent underground lift station pumps the waste liquids a distance of 1,260
ft via under-ground pipeline to tank   A", an equalization tank of approximately
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