38    INTEGRATED PLANT FOR TREATMENT OF DILUTE
HAZARDOUS WASTE
Peter Miedzinski, Senior Project Engineer
Aerojet Corporation
Sacramento, California 95853
Jeffrey B. Glover, Project Engineer
Mark S. Montgomery, Project Manager
CWC-HDR, Inc.
Cameron Park, California 95682
INTRODUCTION
Aerojet, a division of Gencorp, is a Sacramento, California, based aerospace company primarily
involved in the manufacture and development of liquid and solid rocket motors for both the Department of Defense and the space program. Such manufacturing involves a number of different processes which can generate dilute hazardous wastes which are hauled to Class 1 disposal sites.
The Central Waste Management Department (CWM) is responsible for handling and disposing of
all waste, both toxic and nontoxic, at the Sacramento facility. Within this department is the Central
Waste Technology group that is responsible for developing and constructing facilities which can treat
both toxic and nontoxic wastes. It is the goal of this group to minimize off-site disposal.
Dilute Hazardous Waste
Currently, Aerojet generates approximately 2,000,000 gallons a year of aqueous dilute hazardous
wastes. This paper discusses the pilot work and design considerations that culminated in the construction of a treatment plant for these wastes which will discharge effluent to a publicly owned treatment
works (POTW).
Project Rationale
The current cost for disposal of dilute aqueous hazardous waste is approximately $1.00/gallon.
Future cost projections (refer to Figure 1) indicate that future disposal costs can severely impact the
profitability of any ongoing operation. Furthermore, the potential liability for a waste generator who
disposes of waste at a Class 1 site is ever present.
Increasingly tighter bans on off-site disposal across the nation, and specifically in California,
justified the immediate need to evaluate building an on-site treatment plant.
Central Waste Technology, in conjunction with CWC-HDR, Inc., proceeded with a study to
examine the specific waste streams.
Characterization of Waste Streams
The Aerojet Sacramento facility is situated on approximately 8,000 acres. Due to the large size of
the property, CWM uses 3,000-gallon tank trucks to pick up various wastes at different generator sites
and move these wastes to a group of centralized collection points.
The various waste streams have been characterized by source into the following five general categories: 1) line 2; 2) 04051; 3) photo etch; 4) decontam; and 5) chem lab. Analytical data for these source
streams were reviewed to identify the major waste constituents. Major constituents of these streams
are detailed in Table I. After identifying the streams, discussions were held with the Sacramento
Regional County Sanitation District (SRCSD) to communicate CWM's interest in building an on-site
treatment facility. In order to determine design parameters, a set of discharge limits which would
allow disposal of treated effluent to the SRCSD's POTW was requested. The resulting discharge limits
and effluent design criteria are detailed in Table II.
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