Wastewater Treatment at the Chrysler
Corporation Toledo Machining Plant
A. R. BALDEN, Waste Treatment Specialist
Chrysler Corporation
Detroit, Michigan
INTRODUCTION
The Toledo Machining plant is located south of Toledo, Ohio in Perrysburg
Township. The area is drained by the Maumee River which empties into Lake Erie at
Toledo.
Chrysler Corporation's decision to build a machining plant at this particular
site quite evidently reflected considerable confidence in avaUable wastewater
technology. Federal-State conferences held to diagnose the causes for the "iUness
which had brought Lake Erie to its death bed," to quote freely from releases of the
times, pointed to the Maumee River as one of the main contributors to this pollution.
The wastewater from a machining plant wUl be contaminated with soluble oUs
and cutting oils, emulsion cleaners and alkaline detergents, and in the case of the
Toledo Machining plant, phosphates from chemical surface treatment solutions.
Considerable experience had been encountered with the difficulty in adequately
treating many of these combinations. Since Chrysler Corporation recognizes that the
treatment of wastewater to the extent required to protect the water resources of the
area is a necessary part of the cost of doing business, it was evident that only that
equipment which would provide the most advanced technology should be installed.
FlexibUity, aUowing many different combinations of treatment was a key consideration in establishing the design criteria.
It was management's decision to so treat the wastewater that it would be suitable
either for reuse in manufacturing operations or for release to the river. In this paper,
we will describe the plant and its operation. The effluent quality obtained will be
discussed as well as typical cost figures. We wUl illustrate how the chaUenge presented by the special conditions pertaining to the plant site and the Maumee River
have successfully been met.
WASTE TREATMENT PLANT
Figure 1 illustrates the wastewater treatment plant layout. This artist's rend-
tion of the plant includes aU the significant pieces of equipment used in the processing sequence. The wastewater from the factory flows by gravity to a sump at the
right end of the buUding. A grit remover screens out aU the large solids of onein.
dimension or larger as the flow passes to a transfer sump. The wastewater is transferred to one of three primary clarifiers by a float actuated pump. When the level in
the sump reaches three ft, one of the 500 gpm pumps starts to transfer the wastewater.
If the flow exceeds 500 gpm or the pump fails to start, a second pump is actuated at
a level of four ft. An audio alarm sounds at five ft.
The clarifiers are each sized to accept a 500 gpm wastewater flow for an eight
hr shift.    These 240,000 gal tanks each have a 50 hp motor agitator extending
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