Handling of Metal Bearing Wastes
at Erie, Pennsylvania
JOHN   W.   TOWNSEND
Sanitary Engineer
Consoer, Townsend & Associates
Chicago, Illinois
The purpose of this paper is to present basic design data and a
description of the two waste treatment plants now under construction at
the Erie Works of the General Electric Company as well as the prob¬
lems involved in the collecting of the various spent acids and metal
bearing and cyanide rinse waters, and conveying the same to central
points for subsequent neutralization and treatment prior to discharging
into the waters of Lake Erie.
In order to assist the Sanitary Water Board of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania in its campaign to "preserve and improve the purity
of the waters of the Commonwealth for the protection of public health,
animal and aquatic life, and for industrial consumption and recreation",
the Erie Works of the General Electric Company conducted extensive
surveys and investigations and determinations relative to the volume and
character of industrial wastes being discharged untreated into Lake
Erie. Numerous preliminary contacts were made with the Sanitary
Water Board regarding standards of design and methods of treatment.
Preliminary ideas advanced by the General Electric Company incorpo¬
rated the utilization of continuous flow facilities for cyanide treatment
in order to reduce construction costs. However, the Sanitary Water
Board was not in accord with the General Electric Company proposal
and insisted on the "Batch Method" of treatment. A report was written
which summarized the findings and made recommendations for treating
the toxic and metal-bearing wastes being discharged by the works. The
report, preliminary plans and an application for a permit to construct
facilities for the treatment of these wastes were then presented to the
Sanitary Water Board with the request that approval thereof be granted.
Following the issuance of a permit by the Sanitary Water Board to
construct the required facilities, the Engineering Firm of Consoer,
Townsend & Associates was engaged by the General Electric Company
to review the preliminary plans and report, make additional quantitative
and qualitative analyses of the wastes to be treated, design facilities for
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