A Rational Approach to an Industrial
Water Pollution Control Program
JOSEPH T. LING, Manager
CHARLES E. KIESTER, Project Sanitary Engineer
Water and Sanitary Engineering Department
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
St. Paul, Minnesota
INTRODUCTION
"Water Pollution" is becoming an increasingly important national issue and
is attracting world wide attention. Because of this it is anticipated that industry
will have to put more and more effort into their water pollution control programs
and will have to consider waste reduction and control as one of the important process functions.
Water pollution control in industry differs greatly from that followed in municipal practice. Control programs for municipalities imply construction and operation of disposal facilities. In industry the control program involves proper plant
site selection, a carefully planned waste reduction program, in addition to a waste
disposal program. In many cases industry can effectively reduce or eliminate the
formation of some of the unwanted waste material at the source through the cooperation of management, research, production and engineering staffs. It should be
emphasized that an industrial waste treatment ana disposal program should be
formulated only after a reasonably thorough waste reduction program has been implemented.
PLANT SITE SELECTION
Early in the planning stages of any new industrial activity is plant site selection. In addition to the usual factors such as availability of the land, labor, raw
materials, water supply, markets, etc., requirements for waste water disposal
should also be investigated (1). The quantity and quality of the waste water from
the proposed processes should be assessed so that waste loads on streams or existing
municipal waste treatment plants can be evaluated. Before the site is finally selected the governmental regulatory agencies that are involved should be consulted
to determine what water quality standards have to be maintained in a receiving
stream or what pretreatment is required if a municipal sewer is available.
In the early stages of site selection when a number of sites are being considered on a more or less confidential basis, information regarding waste disposal can
be obtained from a number of sources such as papers or data published by the U. S.
Public Health Service, U. S. Geological Survey, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
U. S. Weather Bureau, state universities, and other local authorities. If a site on
a stream is being seriously considered, it may be necessary to make a "stream
survey" to determine its waste assimilation capacity.
The cost required for construction of adequate waste disposal facilities should
be included in the final site analysis.
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