73    SOLVING OPERATIONAL PROBLEMS OF AN ANAEROBIC
FILTER TREATING SOFT DRINK BOTTLING WASTES
John L. Carter, Senior Process Engineer
B&V Waste Science and Technology Corp.
Kansas City, Missouri 64114
C. Adam Fischer, Director of Public Works
City of Lenexa
Lenexa, Kansas 66215
INTRODUCTION
Two bottling plants, Shasta Beverages, Inc. (Shasta) and Mid-America Container Corp., a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Mid-America, Inc., found themselves suddenly faced with
tough effluent discharge permit requirements because of EPA industrial pretreatment regulations.
The Coca-Cola Bottling Company, has changed hands several times since the beginning of this project
and will be referred to as Coke in this paper. Both bottling plants are located in the Lenexa, Kansas,
Industrial Park, and discharge their wastewater to the Johnson County Unified Wastewater Districts
(JCUWD) Middle Basin wastewater treatment plant. In 1985, both companies individually hired
separate engineering firms to solve their problems. The BOD of untreated wastewater from either
bottling plant ranged from 200 mg/L to about 4,000 mg/L, depending on the operations being
conducted. Extensive process modifications and conservation efforts were made by both bottling
plants; however, it quickly became clear that new pretreatment facilities would be required because
the conservation efforts did not reduce the effluent BOD to the required levels. This paper will
describe the early development of the pretreatment system and discuss the operation of the facility.
Discussion will concentrate on the manner in which the operating problems were solved to bring the
plant into compliance with the discharge permit. Currently the bottling plants have expanded their
operations beyond the design capacity of the pretreatment facility; therefore work has begun to
expand the pretreatment plant. The treatment plant expansion will be discussed in a future paper.
Coca-Cola Bottling
Black & Veatch was hired on January 10, 1986 to determine the Coke waste characteristics, to
evaluate treatment alternatives, and identify the most cost-effective system for reducing the BOD to
meet the discharge requirements. Coke is a canning and bottling plant that began operation in Lenexa,
Kansas, in May 1970. Since opening, Coke has expanded its operations and approximately doubled
the size of the building which houses its facilities. Slightly less than 1.6 acres was available for plant
expansion or for the construction of a wastewater pretreatment system. In November 1985, an
Analysis and Engineering Report was completed that contains a description of the Coke plant. The
report also describes a two-week sampling program that was undertaken to characterize the wastewater during peak production. A meeting attended by representatives of JCUWD, the Lenexa Public
Works Director, Coke, and Black & Veatch was held to discuss the treatment alternatives and their
construction costs. One of the purposes of the meeting was to request the country to relax the
discharge limits. It was pointed out that the project costs for the most cost-effective alternative would
be significant because of the high degree of treatment required. The discharge permit for Coke
required a BOD removal efficiency of 94%, based on data taken during maximum month production.
However, the County could not raise the allowable effluent BOD concentrations because of the rapid
growth in the area and the municipal need for treatment capacity. An anaerobic filter with capability
to be expanded later by adding an aerobic system following the anaerobic filter was recommended.
46th Purdue Industrial Waste Conference Proceedings, 1992 Lewis Publishers, Inc., Chelsea, Michigan 48118.
Printed in U.S.A.
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