Practical Aspects
of Dairy Waste Treatment
CLIFFORD W. WATSON, JR. , Staff Engineer
Dairymen's League Coop.Association, Inc.
New York,  New York
The problem of dairy waste disposal is not new. Early research was carried out in Germany about 1887. The first studies made in the United States
were carried out at the Lawrence Experiment Station by the Massachusetts
State Board of Health in 1898. Since that time much research has been done
on the use of anaerobic digestion, sand filters, trickling filters, as well as
many specialty treatment systems.
At the close of World War II most of the states, as well as the Federal
Government, enacted new or strengthened old anti-pollution laws. The dairy
industry, with plants scattered throughout the entire country, at once felt the
effect of these clean streams movements. The problem attained such magnitude that a national committee known as the Subcommittee on Dairy Wastes
of the Dairy Industry Committee was formed. Its purpose was to study the
problem, foster research to find more suitable and economical means of dairy
waste treatment, and disseminate this information for the use of the entire
industry. Much research such as that carried on by Hoover, Porges and Associates, Kountz and Associates, and Rohlick and Associates, was fostered by
this group, most of which has been reported previously.
The latest research on treatment has been in the field of bio-oxidation,
either continuous flow or batch process, and irrigation either spray or ridge
and furrow type. These appear to hold the greatest promise for treatment systems that are economical to build and simple to operate. In addition, research has been and still is being carried on at the Eastern Regional Research
Laboratories of the Department of Agriculture on utilization of dairy byproducts, chiefly whey.
In the late summer of 1954 the Dairymen's League Co-operative Association, Inc. was faced with the necessity of providing waste treatment facilities
after two fish kills in Newtown Creek were attributed to the wastes from their
manufacturing plant at Horseheads, N.Y. A series of tests were made to determine the volume and strength of waste. Table I shows the average of the
tests, together with data upon which the treatment plant design was based. It
will be noted that allowances were made in both volume and strength for future expansion of the milk plant.
The continuous flow bio-oxidation process was selected for the design of
this treatment plant. Plans were completed and accepted by the New York
State Department of Health in the spring of 1955. Construction was completed
in the late fall of 1955, but due to cold weather and other problems, start up
was delayed until the spring of 1956. After a period of operation during which
time sludge was built up in the aeration tank a series of tests were tun to show
performance. Results of these tests are shown in Table II. During the course
of these tests an average of 320,088 lbs of milk were received and processed
per day.
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