EXPERIENCES WITH COMBINED TUFTED TEXTILE-MUNICIPAL
WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITIES IN DALTON, GEORGIA:
DESIGN, OPERATION, EVALUATION
Kip Duchon, Project Engineer
Wiedeman and Singleton, Engineers
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
Marshall Painter, Operations Manager
Dalton Utilities
Dalton, Georgia 30720
INTRODUCTION
Dalton, Georgia is a highly industrialized city in northwest Georgia (25,000 population) which has the distinction of being the carpet (tufted textile) capital of the world.
Approximately 60% of the U.S. carpet production is located within a 50-mile radius of
Dalton, with the largest concentration located within the city limits. The city provides
utility services to the industries, and industrial and domestic wastewaters are mixed and
treated in a joint treatment plant.
The tufted textile industry started around the turn of the century as a home handicraft where poor rural families could supplement their income by hand tufting
bedspreads.   Higher labor rates in the 1930s to 1940s forced mechanization of the
industry.    By the early 1950s, the use of the new tufting machines for carpet production was recognized, and a new industry was born.   From the mid-1950s to the present
the industry growth has been phenomenal, with national production of carpet rising from
a 1955 production level of 77.8 million square yards to a 1977 production of 1.02
billion square yards.   Throughout this time span, Dalton has retained its share of the
market due to the fact that the industry was started in Dalton, and because of the
favorable economic advantages for carpet production due to the industry density.
WASTEWATER CHARACTERIZATION
In Dalton, Georgia, the textile wastewaters are mixed with domestic sewage.   Approximately 80% of all water use in Dalton, Georgia is textile process water.   Therefore,
analysis of the textile process wastewater is warranted to determine what nature of
compounds are being treated.
In the tufting of carpets, face yarns are "stitched" or "sewed" into a backing fabric
leaving loops or tufts of fiber extending above the fabric.   Most fibers used are synthetic fibers, with nylons and polyesters comprising over 85% of all fibers used.   The
face yarns may have been previously colored either by the fiber producer or by dyeing
the fibers in the staple or yarn form.   The more common practice is to tuft white
yarns in the carpet and later dye the carpet in place.   Approximately 80% of the carpet
produced in the U.S. is made by the dyeing of white tufted yarns.
The tufted carpet is then dyed by one of several means:   (a) beck dyeing or batch
dyeing in large dye vats; (b) continuous dyeing with the dye being applied to a continuous sheet of carpet; and (c) printing with a thick paste dye being applied to the
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