BOD from Poultry Processing Plants
C. COLEMAN GRIFFITH, Civil Engineer
L. B. Griffith Engineering
Falls Church, Virginia
MICHAEL L. RODEVICK, Engineer
Maryland Department of Water Resources
Cumberland, Maryland
INTRODUCTION
This report concerns the BOD from poultry processing plants and the parameters
by which it can be estimated with meaningful accuracy. Poultry growing and processing have for the most part become integrated operations with both being located
in rural areas not more than a few miles apart. The processing plants are often
located well beyond the reach of nearby community sewer systems, and even when
community sewerage is available the large volume and high strength characteristics
of the poultry waste generally govern in the design of the combined as well as the
separate treatment facility. In both cases, the cost of treatment facilities will be
governed principally by the lb of BOD involved.
The criteria generally cited are the value of 6.68 lb (40 population equivalent)
BOD/production unit of 1000 lb live weight, or the more frequently cited value of
24 lb BOD/production unit of 1000 head. Both criteria call for a fixed amount of
BOD/production unit.
These criteria are based on two studies: 1) a survey made in connection with
the Kansas River Basin Water Pollution Investigation (June 1949) and reported by
Porges (1); and 2) a poultry waste survey conducted by the Alabama Water Improvement Commission (May 1958) and reported by Bolton (2). The Kansas study used a
production unit of 1000 lb live weight; whereas the Alabama survey used a production unit of 1000 head.
There is no intrinsic reason why a production unit of little chickens would produce exactly the same BOD as a production unit of big chickens. The purpose of this
report is to reassess the data developed in these two surveys (which provide the most
comprehensive data available today), and to show that the true criteria for estimating
the BOD load must be based on a production unit which recognizes a direct relationship between the size of the bird being processed and the BOD/production unit of
1000 lb live weight.
If this premise is correct, then the heavier birds being produced in a number of
areas today may account for the disappointing results of treatment facilities which
were designed to criteria that did not take this relationship into account.
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