Sources, Quantities, and Characteristics of
Military Wastewaters
LAWRENCE K. WANG, Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, New York 12181
ROBERT G. ROSS, Chemist
Sanitary Sciences Division
U.S. Army MERDC
Fort Belvoir, Virginia 22060
JOHN G. MICHALOVIC, Research Chemist
Environmental Systems Department
Calspan Corporation
Buffalo, New York 14221
INTRODUCTION
Various sources of military wastewaters can adversely affect the environmental
quality. Accordingly, the U.S. Army Mobility Equipment Research and Development
Center (USAMERDC) authorized Calspan Corporation, under contract No. DAAK02-
73-C-0206, to compile the physical and chemical characteristics of various wastewaters
generated in field military facilities. This paper summarizes the available data on the
quantities and characteristics of laundry wastewater, kitchen and dining room wastewaters,
shower and lavatory wastewaters, human wastes, hospital wastewaters, photographic
wastewaters, washrack wastewaters, and munitions-manufacturing wastewaters.
Based on the characteristic data for field, kitchen, shower and laundry wastewaters, the
nature of combined wastewaters derived from these three sources at various flow
proportions was mathematically calculated. The calculated data for combined wastewaters
were found to be in close agreement with the measured data for actual samples.
SOURCES AND QUANTITIES OF WASTEWATERS
The major water-consuming operation units at a military field base will generally
consist of kitchens (including dining rooms), laundries, latrines (including lavatory and
shower), a hospital, and an industrial unit (including washrack and photographic unit).
These units, in turn, are the major sources of wastewater. The average water requirements
for a typical 1,500-man military base, as listed in Table I, were estimated by the U.S. Army
Mobility Equipment Research and Development Center (USAMERDC). On the basis of
water consumption totalling 56,700 gpd per 1,500 men, wastewater flow will range from 22
to 32 gpd per capita. This is due to the fact that normally only 60 to 80 percent of water used
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