Section 4. FOOD WASTES
AUTOMATIC RESPIROMETRY-A UNIQUE TOOL
FOR DETERMINING DESIGN PARAMETERS FOR A
CANNERY DOMESTIC WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT
Robert M. Arthur, President
Lawrence W. Kent, Project Engineer
Roccy J. Raymond, Project Engineer
Arthur Technology, Inc.
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin 54935
INTRODUCTION
The Village of Eden, Wisconsin, will soon be constructing new wastewater treatment
facilities to serve the community for the next 20 years. During the planning process it
was determined that the canning company in the village was in need of additional treatment capacity for wastewater generated during their pea and corn canning operations.
The canning company asked that capacity for their wastewater be designed into the new
municipal treatment facilities.
The canning company presently utilizes three lagoons for storage and anaerobic treatment of their wastewater (See Figure 1).   The primary method of disposing of the wastes
is to retain the water in the lagoons during the winter and discharge to a stream in the
springtime when BOD has been reduced to an acceptable level, as determined by the
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.   The amount of discharge is supposed to be
controlled by DNR according to the BOD5 of the waste and the river conditions during
the springtime.   A secondary method of disposal is by spray irrigation of wastewater to
cropland.   Much of the land in the Eden area is not suitable for this type of disposal
because of high seasonal groundwater and high bedrock.
STATIONARY
SCREEN
T
LAGOON   3
i
1
INFLUENT
LAGOON  Z
i
LAGOON   1
Figure 1. Schematic of existing anaerobic system
showing present and proposed future
discharge (not to scale).
Future effluent requirements for the Village of Eden will require that the average
discharge BOD5 be 15 mg/1 and the average SS be 20 mg/1.   In addition, there will be
a summer and winter ammonia-N limit of 3 and 6 mg/1, respectively.
The concept of treating both industrial and domestic wastes in a combined plant
appeared to have advantages for both the cannery and the Village, for wastes from the
cannery could be stored and then treated during periods of low domestic loads.   The
storage would reduce the BODs to an acceptable level and the wastes could then be fed
to the treatment plant on a seasonal as well as a diurnal basis.   For the Village it would
mean that the plant would be designed large enough to accommodate domestic flow plus
infiltration-inflow, eliminating rehabilitation work on the sewer system.   It would also
mean lower costs for the Village since the larger plant will cost less per gallon of flow.
According to the Industrial Section of The Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources there are only three municipal wastewater treatment plants in Wisconsin that
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