Purification of Wastes in a Metalworking Plant by Lagooning
• . CHARLES   R.   GRIFFITH
, Chemist
;  ¦ Salisbury Axle Works
¦ Fort Wayne, Indiana
A regular reader of the Sewage Works Journal will have noticed during the past few years several articles dealing with the purification of wastes by lagooning. Two of the more recent are (1) "Industrial Waste Lagoons" and (2) "Purification of Sewage in Lagoons". Lagooning in these articles covers the treatment of cannery and slaughterhouse wastes, and the sewage flow from a large city in Australia, but little has been written about this method of treating wastes from a metal working plant. One such industry has operated a lagooning process for five years, and a survey conducted during the past year discloses the merits and potentialities of such a process.
The Salisbury Axle Plant, a Division of Dana Corporation, manu¬ factures differential axles for automobiles. It is located just outside the northwest corporation line of the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and within a few hundred feet of a nice residential area. Its wastes are probably typical of a medium size metalworking plant, but other factors such as area and topography of the property, construction of the plant and management's attitude toward waste disposal perhaps are not typical.
AREA AND TOPOGRAPHY OF THE PROPERTY
The property consists of 94 acres, the north third of which is ap¬ proximately 32 feet below the floor line of the factory building and six to eight feet above the flow line of a creek at the north property line. Such elevations permit a natural flow from the plant building, through the treatment process and to the creek.
PLANT  DRAINAGE
This plant was built in 1945 and therefore is of modern construction. For waste disposal three separate sewer systems were installed so that the plant wastes could be discharged according to the type of treatment needed.   These systems are identified thusly:
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