Food Cannery Waste Treatment by
Lagoons and Ditches at Shepparton,
Victoria, Australia
CD. PARKER, Director
Melbourne Water Science Institute
Melbourne, Australia
INTRODUCTION
The processing of most food material, prior to canning, gives rise to wastes of
high BOD and, in many cases, particularly with fruit and vegetable products, they
are high in carbonaceous matter but low in nitrogen and phosphate. They are
acidic in reaction or rapidly develop acidity when held or conveyed through pipelines.
Canneries are frequently located close to the areas where the fresh products
are grown, characteristically in Australia they are often located in country towns
with populations of 5,000 to 20,000 where the pollutional load from the cannery
is far greater than that from domestic sewage. The situation at Shepparton, Victoria, is one such case.
The treatment of food canning wastes has been reviewed and discussed in
many articles(1,2,3,4).
It may be concluded that the composition of these wastes does not preclude the
use of orthodox biological processes of activated sludge and trickling filters, provided appropriate steps are taken to correct acidity and nutrient imbalance and to
cope with the BOD load involved. However, difficulties associated with these
characteristics together with the short seasonal nature of the cannery operation and
consequent high capital cost involved, have often been responsible for inadequate
treatment facilities being provided, with consequent development of nuisance due
to odor and pollution of adjacent streams. When attempts have been made to cope
with the problem within the bounds of financial feasibility, the treatment processes have been by spray or flood irrigation or aerobic type lagoons with heavy
dosage of sodium nitrate for odor control.
The present paper describes methods of treatment using anaerobic and aerobic
type lagoons and oxidation ditches.
THE PROBLEM
Shepparton is located 113 miles from Melbourne, (the capital of Victoria) and
has a population of 17,000. It is the regional urban center of the highly productive
one million acre Central Goulbourn Irrigation system. The area produces fat
sheep, dairy products, stone fruit and vegetables.
The town is sewered and the domestic sewage together with wastes from a
bacon factory, two milk processing plants, a butter factory, abattoirs (slaughter
house), textile mill and laundry is treated by primary sedimentation, separate
heated sludge digestion,  and a 120 ft diameter 12 ft deep trickling filter.   The
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