Physical-Chemical Treatment
for Joint Municipal-Industrial Wastewater
at Niagara Falls, New York
THOMAS F. X. FLYNN, Principal Engineer
JOHN C. THOMPSON, Senior Engineer
Camp Dresser & McKee Inc.
Consulting Engineers
Boston, Massachusetts
INTRODUCTION
The City of Niagara Falls, it would appear, is in the enviable position of being able to
discharge its liquid wastes into a river that flows at 200,000 cfs almost constantly. The City
has made serious efforts in past years to provide treatment of its wastes, in spite of this
massive dilution, to preserve the beauty of the Niagara River and the Gorge. Its most recent
effort in this direction has been the completion of the design for a new secondary wastewater
treatment facility and the necessary concomitant improvements to its sewerage system.
The Niagara Falls area is a well-known tourist and honeymoon mecca which attracts
millions of visitors each year. A fact that is less known about the City is that it is highly
industrialized, as a result of it's having an abundance of water, cheap power, and for the
moment, convenient wastewater disposal. Products of the City's industries cover a broad
spectrum and include electrochemical, electrometalurgical, paper and food products and
organic chemicals and abrasives. Nationally-known firms have plants there, including
Hooker Chemical, Union Carbide, DuPont, Goodyear, National Lead and Olin. These
industries produce enormous volumes of waste, as shown in Table I. The population
equivalent of the estimated industrial flow is two million, and the population equivalent on
the basis of suspended solids and COD approaches one million, all from a city with a
population of about 86,000.
Table I
EXISTING INDUSTRIAL DISCHARGES (1970)
NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK
Suspended Chemical
Flow, Solids, Oxygen Demand,
Industrial Discharges mgd ppd ppd
To Municipal Sewers 62.5 190,000 136,000
To Diversion Sewer 30 17,000 2,000
To River 71 67,000 104,000
TOTALS 163.5 274,000 242,000
In the middle 1930's, the City constructed a sewage disposal plant in the Niagara River
gorge, downstream from the Falls, as shown in Figure 1. The discharge from the City's
combined system receives preliminary treatment at the plant, including coarse screening,
grit removal, fine screening and chlorination before being discharged into the River. Little
of the esthetically displeasing characteristics of the waste is treated, and the American side
of the river is often discolored for some distance downstream.
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