Pollution Abatement of Poultry
Processing and By-Products Wastes
EARL A. BUDD, Manager Specialty Products
Rockingham Poultry Marketing Co-operative
Broadway, Virginia
STUART C. CRAWFORD, Consulting Engineer
Franklin, Virginia
INTRODUCTION
The Rockingham Poultry Marketing Co-operative was started in 1940 and
over the last 20 yrs has progressed to the point that they now have four processing plants that are processing a total of 120, 000 chickens and turkeys a day;
a dog food plant that is canning approximately 20 million lbs a yr; and a new
plant that has just recently opened to can a complete line of chicken products. The treatment system being reported on is at the home office plant at
Broadway, Virginia.
In 1950 plans were being formulated for some type of treatment for plant
waste water. The present system was installed in 1952 and the lagoon system
in 1954 when by-products wastes came into being.
DOG FOOD MANUFACTURE
Early in 1954 we decided to utilize the viscera from the poultry processing operations for the manufacture of dog food. These basic materials were
to be supplemented with the necessary ingredients to market an acceptable
and nutritious pet diet. This led to a significant development in by-product
use for substances that had previously been utilized in inedible rendering
processes.
One of the first problems was the tremendous amount of solids that were
separated from the poultry viscera, before use of the viscera, as a basic element for the dog food formula. This situation was complicated by the quantities of fat in conjunction with the solids separated for disposal.
Solids deposition tanks were placed after the viscera processing operation. These units functioned well, but still did not remove the large quantities of grease emulsified with the solids. The passage of such material to
the main wastes stream seriously interfered with the proper operation of the
overall plant wastes sedimentation tank.
WASTE DISPOSAL SYSTEM
The total wastes from the Broadway plant, after inplant screening and recovery facilities, are diverted to a sedimentation installation. This unit is
60 ft long and 15 ft wide and provides a retention time of approximately 1. 5
hrs. It is equipped with both a skimming mechanism and a bottom sludge
recovery apparatus. The material collected in this tank is disposed of manually.
Following the sedimentation device, there are three lagoons in series.
These lagoons are 150 ft square by four ft deep and are designed to retain
total plant wastes for seven to 10 days.
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