Treating Vegetable Cannery Wastewater
in Hallwood, Virginia
TARA SINGH, Chief
Environmental Engineering Division
H.D. Nottingham & Associates
McLean, Virginia 22101
C.E. PORTERFIELD, General Manager
John W. Taylor Packing Co., Inc.
Hallwood, Virginia 23359
INTRODUCTION
Located on the eastern shore of Virginia, the John W. Taylor Packing Company, Inc.,
of Hallwood, Virginia, cans white potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions. The eastern shore
area where the packing plant is situated, it is a peninsula approximately 60 miles long and
7 miles across at its widest point. The company employs about 350 workers during its
peak operating period when it processes and cans about 1,000 cases of potatoes per day.
The canning season extends from July 1 through mid-November, and sometimes through
mid-December, each year.
The source of potable water supply for the plant is the wells on the Taylor property.
Except for chlorination, the well waters receive no other treatment. Hallwood does not have
a municipal sewerage system; the entire town is on septic tanks. During the 4'/2-5 month
canning season each year the Taylor plant produces about 25-30 million gallons process
wastewater. Within the plant, two separate drainage systems are provided — one for the
collection of flows of domestic wastes; and the other for process, equipment and building
cleaning, and boiler blowdown, etc. To conserve water, processing waters—particularly
wash waters—are recycled. Traps and other separators are used within the plant. Potato
peeling operation uses caustic soda, which results in rather high pH values of the wastewaters. The raw wastewater varies considerably in its characteristics from one day to the
next during the packing period. Total solids and BOD5 concentrations are generally quite
high, and are caused by a mixture of potato starches and caustic soda. Influent waste
characteristics are summarized in Table I.
All in-plant process wastewater from the lye peelers, washers, finishers, etc.,
accumulates in plant drainage ditches and flows by gravity to a pumping station. Ahead of
the pumping station, process water flows through a bar screen which removes large solids
and anything that might damage the pumps. For a number of years the Taylor wastewater
was pumped into four lagoons in series, each 20 to 25 feet deep and having a capacity of 5 to
8 million gallons. The ponds are designed so as to gravity-flow from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 as each
cell is filled to an overflow point. The dike between ponds #2 and #3 is submerged when they
are full. In the past, each season's flow was held in the lagoons until the end of the packing
season when it was discharged to the adjacent streams at a controlled rate. Over the years
solids have accumulated in Pond #1 and #2 to a depth of about 10 feet.
Recent changes in the state water control law and stream standards required that
further treatment be given to these wastewaters prior to their release to the receiving stream.
The drainage ditch into which wastewater effluent is discharged flows from east to west
across the Taylor property through a wooded area for about a quarter of a mile before
merging in Messongo Creek. Messongo Creek has a summer discharge of about 3.5 cfs. A
little less than a mile downstream from this point, Messongo Creek joins Gum Branch
having a summer flow of 7.6 cfs. Gum Branch, in turn, empties into the tidal areas of
Chesapeake Bay.
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