Treatment of Textile Mill Wastes in
Aerated Lagoons
SAMUEL W. WILLIAMS, JR.
O'Brien & Gere
Consulting Engineers
Syracuse,  New York
and
GEORGE A. HUTTO, JR.
Mooresville Mills
Mooresville, North Carolina
Burlington Industries, Inc., like many of the textile companies in the
present day expanding industrial South, is faced with instituting pollution
abatement measures at several of its plants. To solve many of these problems
by conventional waste treatment methods would place a heavy economic
strain on the company which is in a highly competitive field. Because of the
necessity of keeping costs to a minimum, intensive pilot plant studies have
been undertaken at two of the mills owned by the company. This paper de -
scribes these studies and outlines the savings that will result from the construction of full-scale facilities based on the pilot plant work. The two mills at
which the work was done are Mooresville Mills at Mooresville, North Carolina, and the Wake Finishing Plant at Wake Forest, North Carolina.
Mooresville Mills is an integrated cotton textile manufacturing operation.
Cotton arrives in bale form and leaves, after many operations, as finished
fabric. Process water requirements are about 1. 6 MGD and account for nearly 80 per cent of the total waste effluent discharged to thereceiving stream by
both the town and the mill. During periods of relative drought in the summer
months, the stream is almost wholly industrial waste and domestic sewage.
The receiving stream was classified "E" by the North Carolina State
Stream Committee. However, the Rocky River, into which the receiving
stream discharges, was classified "D." Computations of pollutional load
based on available stream flow data indicated that approximately 80 per cent
of the total BOD of all wastes had to be removed to meet the "D" classification.
Dyeing at Mooresville Mills is done in both the raw stock and package
form. This requires nearly 60 per cent of the 1. 6 MGD process water used
and therefore contributes 60 per cent of the waste volume. Finishing, which
includes mercerization of fabric, application of various finishes, and many
washing operations, contributes 35 per cent of the waste volume. The remaining volume of waste comes from miscellaneous sources such as the water
treatment plant, power plant, and laboratories. The volume of waste produced in each processing operation is obtained from water meters installed in
each department. All dyeing and finishing operations are on a 24-hr-a-day
basis.
There are two principal industrial waste sewers, one serving the two package dyehouses and the other the finishing department, the raw stock dyehouse,
and the other miscellaneous waste producing operations. At present, the BOD
concentrations in the waste in each of the two sewers is approximately the
same.    However,  prior to the in-plant changes described below,  the BOD
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