Modernization of the SCWW facility now includes Ozone, UV and
Electrocoagulation technology.
Santa Clara Waste Water using
Electrocoagulation
Serving the Waste Water Needs of Industry
Santa Clara Waste Water (SCWW) is a private company processing and treating
non-hazardous waste water streams from various different industries located
in Ventura County and throughout California. SWCC’s main clientele
are septic and portable toilet pumpers, cooling tower brine blowdown
water and landfill leachate. SCWW facility has been treating waste water
at their location for over 40 years. The pre-treated water is discharged
into the sewer mains and pumped to the Oxnard Municipal Wastewater Treatment
Plant for final treatment before discharge into the Pacific Ocean.
“We allow industries to focus on what they do best and outsource
their waste water treatment needs to the experts,” says Chuck Mundy,
General Manager. “We have been in the business of cleaning industrial
wastewater for almost 40 years and have some of the most advanced technology
to meet the challenges of a stricter regulatory environment.”
Meeting the Challenge
Industrial wastewater streams are different from source to source. Stricter
discharge regulations throughout California have driven the demand
for better and more effective wastewater treatment. Over the years
SCWW have expanded the capacity of their facility handle to handle
up to 100 gpm or 140,000 gallons per day. Not only has capacity increased
but modernization of the SCWW facility now includes Ozone, UV and Electrocoagulation
technology. “We now have a full spectrum of technologies that
eliminates a long list of contaminants”, noted Mundy, “this
gives us greater reliability but also flexibility to meet the challenges
of a changing regulatory mandate”.
Reducing Operational Costs
Removal of heavy metals from industrial and municipal wastewater is often
an operationally intensive process. Chemical precipitation in wastewater
treatment involves the addition of chemicals to alter the physical
state of dissolved and suspended solids allowing them to be physically
removed from water through filtration.
The chemicals used in wastewater treatment include Alum, Ferric chloride,
Ferric sulfate, Ferrous sulfate, and Lime. The inherent disadvantage
associated with most chemical processes is that they are additive processes.
SCWW was spending up to $100,000 per month on chemical-additives for
heavy metal remediation. By installing an Electrocoagulation (EC)
system, SCWW was able to reduce their monthly chemical costs to $10,000
month and at the same time improve the wastewater treatment process to
surpass discharge requirements to the local POTW.
In addition, the EC system reduces the total sludge generated by 90%. Sludge
removal costs can be significant. SCWW was able to reduce tipping and hauling
costs by 90%. “The EC system was delivered on a skid ready to be
installed”, says Mundy, “A technician from the factory arrived
the same day, helped with the installation, gave the operators the necessary
training and we were ready to go. The EC unit is very easy to install,
operate and maintain.”
More effective Treatment
A 50 gpm Electrocoagulation unit treating septic, landfill
leachate and portable toilet wastewater replaces chemical treatment
and saves a liquid waste treatment facility one million dollars per
year
The electrocoagulation technology efficiently removes a
wide range of contaminants with a single system. Traditional water treatment
would require a different type of equipment to remove bacteria, silt,
pesticides, heavy metals, and oil from water. The broad-spectrum effect
allows one system to remove multiple contaminates saving equipment cost,
space, time and minimizes potential points in failure. In addition to
the EC system, SCWW has installed downstream an ozone generator and injection
system as a secondary anti-microbial treatment eliminating any remaining
pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, E-coli and cryptosporidium. The
result is more effective non-chemical treatment and better quality water
that can be discharged.
Reusable Water
Chemical treatment is not only expensive, but, more importantly, the
net increase in the dissolved constituents in the wastewater render
it impractical or impossible to reuse. Electrocoagulation precipitates
the dissolved and suspended solids. The total dissolved solids in the
liquid usually decrease by 27 to 60 percent. This enables the water
to be reused in many applications, such as water reuse in steam cleaning
operations. Reuse of the water provides a major advantage because this
eliminates all EPA and POTW discharge concerns, to say nothing of the
replacement costs of the water itself. In the case of SCWW, the facility
acts as an up stream pre-treatment for the local municipal wastewater
treatment plant.
Private and Public Partnership
Downstream from SCWW is the Oxnard Wastewater Treatment Plant (OWTP).
It is a secondary treatment plant with a design capacity of 31.7 MGD.
Treated water is discharged directly into the Pacific Ocean as well
as injected into groundwater wells to prevent salt water intrusion
into the agricultural rich Oxnard Plain. As the only ocean discharger
in Ventura County, OWTP has to meet strict state and federal EPA discharge
levels. SCWW has specialized on the treatment of difficult industrial
wastewater stream that could otherwise not be treated by conventional
secondary treatment technology. “We provide a service that not
only benefits our industrial customers directly but we also remove
a burden for the City of Oxnard by effectively pre-treating wastewater
so they can meet their discharge levels” explains Mundy. “We
are reducing bacteria from the sewage waste water, oily waste waters
from steam cleaning operations, refineries, and food processors, dissolved
silica, clays and other suspended materials and heavy metals in water
such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, nickel, and zinc”.
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