Pilot Studies on Spray Irrigation of
Meatpacking Plant Wastewater
ANTHONY J. TARQUIN, Associate Professor
Civil Engineering Department
University of Texas at El Paso
El Paso, Texas 79968
INTRODUCTION
For many years the soil has been effectively used for treating municipal and liquid
industrial wastes. Because of the increasing demands placed on available water supplied,
tertiary waste treatment with subsequent water reuse will soon become mandatory. One of
the most promising methods of renovating wastewater is through soil treatment.
Wastewater-treatment through land application has been demonstrated for a number
of wastes under widely varying conditions, not only in the United States, but in England (1,
2), Germany (3, 4), Israel (5, 6), South Africa (7), and New Zealand (8, 9). Liquid wastes
with a wide spectrum of physical and chemical characteristics have been successfully treated
by soil application including municipal sewage (7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20),
cannery wastes (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28), pulp and paper mill wastes (29, 30), dairy
wastes (8, 31), vegetable and food processing wastes (32, 33, 34, 35, 36), wood distillation
wastes (37), and poultry wastes (28). While the literature contains no references regarding
full scale treatment of meatpacking plant wastes by land application, this method seems
feasible and economically attractive. The purpose of this paper is to present preliminary
results of pilot studies of a soil treatment system for meatpacking plant wastewater.
BACKGROUND
The project described in this paper is located at the Peyton Packing Company in El
Paso, Texas. The climate in the El Paso area is subtropical, characterized by an abundance
of sunshine throughout the year, high summer temperatures, low humidity, scanty rainfall,
and a cool winter season. Rainfall throughout the year is light, with an annual mean of
about 7 inches. Dry periods of several months duration without appreciable amounts of
rainfall are not uncommon. Daytime summer temperatures are high, frequently above 90 F
and occasionally above 100 F. Winter daytime temperatures are mild, rising to 55 to 60 F on
the average, and dropping to the thirties anf forties at night.
The Peyton Packing Company owns approximately 23 acres with the plant and
parking lot occupying 3 acres and the remaining 20 planted in river-irrigated alfalfa. At the
present time, the company slaughters 425 head of cattle and processes about 400 head of
dressed swine in an 8 hour working day. However, plans are currently underway to expand
to a 16 hour working day. A variety of meat products are made and packaged at the plant,
including bacon, hot dogs, balogna, hams, and full lines of sausage and smoked meats.
WASTEWATER CHARACTERIZATION
In spite of the many by-products recovery processes employed in the plant, the
wastewater discharged is very strong and quite typical of wastes generated by slaughterhouse-meatpacking plants (38). The effluent is subjected to primary treatment and grease
skimming in a rectangular sedimentation basin providing a 30 minute detention time at
peak flow. Table I shows the average concentrations of pH, BOD, COD, total Kjeldahl
nitrogen, grease and total solids of the influent and effluent of the sedimentation tank. In
addition, the range of each parameter is also shown for the tank effluent.
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