Document KRNMNNQewdXoV3GZ1RZnwQXX6

VBPSS5R-. o sir *'***'+ t f jJfV/W.0 /y. J Afi(-aA/T . Iet*n ' .' '' ' October 11, 1976 TOs . Or. Eurfee and 474 distribution - nCMi Donald Sargent ' ' HUP REPORT: General Electric CBmpeny, Hudson Falla and Fort Edward, New York, September 28, 1976. Contacts: Mr. if. R. McKenzie. Manager, Manufacturing Section and Mr. Robert ESrcufsT ' ' . Project Biginger, Mute Treatment and Control Introduction - ' ' Mrs. Gayaneh CCntos visited the two General Electric capacitor mama* factoring plants at Hudson Falls and Fort Edward, New York, on October 22 and 23, 1975. Bar trip report of November 3, 1975 described in detail the manufacturing operations, PCB handling, plant water usage, raw uastas, ' treatment and housekeeping, and effluents from these two plants. ; . m the past year, however, since Mrs. Centos' visit, much has bean announced in the press of additional PCB control measures aoconplishad (and cqamittad to) by General Electric. Most recently, an agreement between G.E. and the New York state Department of Qwirotmental Conservation We announced Septacber 8, 1976.. A return visit vi^ls therefore requested to doeunant 'the technical changes at these two plants in the past year. - The first major section in this report describes the acocnplistments ' to date in PCB control which are now on stream or in effect. The next section describes the work nm in progress to which General Electric is oenmitted, vis an agreement with the New York State EEC. The target data for full imploienta- ticn is May 1977. .. Containment Project Pcconplishments . The CE containment project has been formally progressing since 1974, with an estimated investment in the past two.years of 61.0. to $1.5 million. ' Much of this project was described in Mrs. Centos' 1975 report. The changes in effect as of September 1976 have resulted in a reduction of PCS' s dis charged from 8 to 9 pounds per day in 1974, to a present value of less than one HONS 070346 ifcB'sar. pound per day. The present total discharge is 1.6 MGD; this is mnA. up of process wastewaters with PCS concentrations in the 100 to 200 ppb range, and of noR-oontact cooling water, treated sanitary wastewater, and rain fall runoff water. The present total PCB discharge of less than one poun! par day is half that reported in the October 1975 visit report. '. The parts of the containment project actually completed as of September 1976 are: ` '. ' 1. Segregation of contaminated process wastewaters and runoff waters . fron non-contact cooling water. At Port Edwards, 387,000 GPD of well water is used for non-contact cooling in manufacturing pro cesses. At Hudson Falls, 1,002,000 GPD (90 per cent river water and 10 per cent municipal water) is used for cooling; of this, ' approximately 750,000 GPD is used for water-cooled plant air conditioners (all Fort Edwards air conditioners are air-cooled) and the balance is used for non-contact cooling in manufacturing operations. At Hudson Falls, the river water intake is already . i contaminated (up to 10 ppb) with PCBs). The segregation project was accomplished by a painstaking process . of tracing wastewater lines, using dye studies where required, and of disconnecting the old sewer hookups which had caused mixing of . process wastewater, cooling water effluents from heat exchangers, sanitary wastewaters, and storm drains. . 2. Prevention^_gontamiriatian of waters, frtm_spiUs_ and infiltration. This completed project includes the sealing of trenches, and the plugging of underground sewers and their replacement with overhead lines. In the manufacturing areas, drips and spills of PCBs have been reduced with drip pans under process equipment and conveyors . and by work practices; open channels in these areas have all been . filled. Engineering controls and work practices instituted for reducing worker exposure to PCBs are also effective in reducing the . amount of PCB residuals which in the past have contaminated plant wastewater streams. Curbs and dikes have been Installed around PCB transfer and storage areas (an enclosure around the PCB unloading area to prevent rain water accumulation has not as yet been installed). 3. necreasp in process wastewater volume. A water recirculation systaa lias been installed for the Nash-water-sealed vacuun punps, with two decanters (in series) in the system for removal of oily wastes. Al though a large reduction in volume has been achieved (compared to a once-;through system), there is still excess water to be wasted, since MGNS 070347 VtersaK this Nash purp water includes condensed moisture and since the Nash puip is in series with the first two stages of the steamgjjgtar systsa at Fort_Bdward.. No steam ejectors axe used at Hudson'Falia. CAnothar example^is in capacitor cleaning after impregnation. One ^ detergent washing machine is being replaced with a vapor degreasing ' unit at a investment of $90,000. The remaining washing machines each have three independent cloaiud water systems: prewash, wash, and . rinse. The quantity of detergent has been reduced; its main function new is pH control, nve water in each section is recirculated thzoqh ' a filter and a decant tank. Thera is only intermittent makeup water, and the cycle time for dumping, cleaning, and refilling is once every two months. - . nve decanters used in process water recirulation systems are snail units . - with short residence times. It is GE's experience that rapid phase separation occurs. ' 4. Elimination of batch duiping. All intermittent contaminated process wastewaters are now collected instead of being discharged to the river. These batches of 'wastewater account to 150,000 gallons per yeur and are shipped by a disposal contractor for incineration. In addition, of ' ' course, FCS-contaminated oily wastes from decant tanks and other sources, and FCBr-contaminated solid wastes, are sent to the disposal contractor (OvanCTrol in Model City, N.Y.). The batch wastewaters which are new collected include those fran the washing machines, paint sludge, the spent phosphate baths, vacuus pimp oils, catch pans, spills and wastewater from seme decant tanks. ' 3. Treatment of sanitary wastewaters from Fort Edward (the sanitary wastes from Hudson Falls are sewered to the nunicipal system). A package treatment plant, consisting of sedimentation, aeration, and chlorine^ tion, is designed to achieve 85 per cent removal of both BOD and suspended solids for a flew of 25,000 GPD. The sludge is sent for ' incineration. - Additional Prelects in Progress .. T&ecamnYWMSt&'ttKemm is in the process of instituting eajar changes and additions which are aKpecgWrtb~reauca the quantity of PCBa dis charged fa--S present IaveTof less than one pound per.day tO>a level qfej--gf than CSKSfWK--K dsyi These projects are expected to cost $3.5 million and are to be implonented by April or May, 1977. The control and treatment projects 'raze: HONS 070348 Vtorsai' 1. Raclrculaticn of Non-Oontact Cooling water. Theam waters ars already segregatod Iron contaminated process wastewaters. Eras oontaminatod runoff waters, and from contaminated sanitary wastewaters. His additional effort is the construction of atmospheric cooling towers . . at each of the two plants, in conjunction with punping and piping ' changes to convert the once-through cooling water system to am-./ ' circulating systems. He recirculation rate for both plants is ' . approximately 1.4 MGD; tha anticipated cooling tower blowdown rate for tha recirculating system is 60,000 GPD. lie. makeup oooling wetext. will be 100 per cane city water, which has non-detectahle ( 1 ppb) ^ levels of PCas; in contrast to 1-10 jive- 'star jiie--u Tji uaad for intake in the cnce-through system. Without PCS contamination in the new intake water, it is planned that the blowdown would be directly discharged without treatment. However, it is planned ' to monitor this blowdown discharge, and FCB-treatment capacity will ' - exist to include this water should treatment be required. An advantage to (Z of aliminating the river water Intake is that the fibers and other river water aontaniinsnts, which have '->--* flow control difficulties vis plugging, will be eliminated.- _ 2. Consolidation of Discharges and Unpoundnent Basins. With the major portion of tha voltsnatric discharge eliminated (by the recirculating . cooling water systems), and with batch discharges of contaminatad ' process waters eliminated (by their collection and eventual incinera tion) , the remaining wastewaters than would amount to about 139,000 GPSr ' Port Edward process wastewaters rapt Biward treated sanitary wastewaters Port Edward runoff and infiltration Hudson Falls runoff and infiltration. 60,000 GPO 2?,000 GPO 40,000 GPO* 10,000 GPO . _ " 'Estimated frem 593,000 square feat of area and 0.1 inches per day average rainfall . No process wastewaters will be discharged frem tha Hudson Palls plant; and the Hudson Palls sanitary wastewaters are accepted by tha municipal sewer system. . '. Thaae wastewater discharges will be consolidated so that they, mtpty into three ingoundnent basins now being constructed (before winter). Two impoundment basins at Hudson Falls will have capacities of 160,000 and 240, gallons; and cne at Port Edward will have a capacity of 1,700,000 gsVirus. They will be IS feet deep, bentonite-lined, and will have pariwatar ' tranches dug to bedrock, with sumps so that basin seepage could be collected an] returned. The basins hove been sized to contain the runoff.frem a 25-year, 24-hour storm (4.9 inches of rainfall). The estimated capital coats for the basins is $250,000 to $300,000. With M0NS 070349 * total capacity far ail throe basins of 2.1 million gallons, the anticipated average flew into tbs basins of 135,000 GPP results in an avorago detention tin* of about 15.5 days. His avorago -1-^--- solids loading of the wastewutars flowing into tbs basins is estimated to be 100 ng/1, and it is estimated that 10 per cent of these would be settled in the basins. The resulting sediment would there fore be in the order of mo tons per year of solids or a few inches . per year of deposited sludgd whichwould be periodically renewed by suction. . - As expected westewaters to be collected in the two Hudson rails impoundment basins is only 10,000 (30. General Electric plans to truck these wastewaters to. the large Fort Edward impoundment basin, completely consolidating all contaminated wastewaters from both plants into the single 1.7 miIlian gallon Fort Edward basin. Treatment of Impounded Haters at Ftort Edward. General Electric has contracted with Calgcn for the treatment of tha impounded waters at Ebrt Edward.- The Calgcn systan is to consist of one mixed-media . (sand and coal} filter colum and two activated-carbon adsorption colums in series, with auxiliary carbon.and sludge holding tanks, piping, and aontrols. The Calgcn contract includes off-site carbon regeneration, but GE will separately contract (with OwOtol) for sludge disposal. Tha cost to General Electric for the leased treatment system is about 5165,000 par year for a mininum of three years. The systan is to be cn stream by April or My of 1977, about eight merrths after the contracted caanittment of Saptnnber 1976. uav*r AFu</rh"*vt>t Autmm The Calgon system performance abjective is to achieve an effluent KBs concentration of one pert per bill inn or leas. At a wastewater flow of 135,000 (SO, this is equivalent to e total FCBs discharge of about 0.001 pounds par day (or 0.5 grans per day) or lass. A comparison, tha peasant FCBs .discharge is about ana pound per day for the present . discharge of about 1.6 MOD. - ' As performance abjective of the Calgcn system is based upon a series of colum tests performed by Calgon at General Electric, upon aliquots of the actual General Electric wastewaters. At tha time of those pilot tests, tha influent wastewaters contained about 400 to 600 ppb of FCBs (oanpared to the present and expected concentration of 100 to 200 ppb>, and effluent FC3s concentrations as determined by Calgcn fxcm daily conpoaite samples were one part per billion or less. A this pilot study, the FCBs concentration was reduced by the mixed-media prefiltsr to tha range of 5 to 40 ppb, with the carboir adsorbers acconpliahing the remaining KB concentration, .reduction to 1 ppb or leas. MOMS 070350 Wca'sssaK 'Bern two carbon adsorbers to be used in series at Ftort Edward will each provide about 45 minutes contact time at a nominal flow rate of about 150,000 GPO (or about 14 cubic feet per minute), lbs derived bed volims in each adsorber is therefore about 630 cubic feet. There will be about 20,000 pounds of carbon in each bed. The frequency of off-site regeneration is expected to be between 2 and 4 times per year for both adsorbers (or cns to two per year for each adsorber). *' . . .- . The mixed-madia`prefilter will have a pressure drop monitor; utMn required, it will be backwashed into a holding tank. It is planted to periodically pass this backwash water over a load of spent- carbon (which would then be sent for thermal reactivation to Calgon); the effluent frcm this backwash water filtration would than be returned to the Fort Edward ingoundment basin. HONS 070351