The state of Florida has a diverse population and a diverse industrial base. Handling industrial wastewaters is a challenge that Florida is not leaving to chance. The state has an environmental protection system in place to handle the waste flow from five of the regions that deal with industrial wastewater.
Northwest District
“In our district, covering 16 counties, we are challenged with environmental issues of historic industry and current growth boom,” says Sally Cooey, outreach coordinator and ombudsman for the Northwest District. “Approximately one half of our permitted wastewater facilities are actually industrial sites. Others include such things as concentrated animal feed operations and concrete batch plants.”
The district’s industrial facilities include power plants, chemical plants, pulp and paper operations and sites where washing creates or produces a wastestream. These include such small industries as laundries, car washes, and some silica sand and gravel mining operations. These mining operations are primarily located west of the Apalachicola River in this district.
Large quantities of timber, much of which goes to the pulp and paper industry, are grown and harvested within the district. For the past few years, the Florida DEP has been encouraging International Paper Co., one of the largest industries in the area, to reduce pollutants in its wastestream. IP took over operation of this facility in 2000, purchasing it from Champion Paper Company. As a result of talks between Florida DEP and IP, an agreement was reached between IP and the Emerald Coast Utility Authority. In this unprecedented agreement, IP agreed to give land to ECUA for construction of a new domestic advanced wastewater treatment plant to service an area of anticipated development. Without such a facility, the new homes and other establishments would utilize septic systems to treat their wastewater. The agreement includes up to 5 million gallons per day of highly treated reuse water from the ECUA plant going to IP for use as process water in its plant. “Using the treated domestic wastewater as an alternative water supply for the industrial processes at the mill is the ultimate in recycling,” says Cooey. “This also equates to a reduction in groundwater usage by IP, an important benefit in an area that uses that same aquifer for their drinking-water needs.”
Another new development is an agreement between IP and the ECUA involving the mutual use of an experimental wetland system to receive the treated wastewaters. IP’s industrial wastewater and the treated domestic wastewater that isn’t used by IP would unite into a single stream and then be sent through a 10-mile pipeline to a 1,500-acre restored wetland area for final polishing before the water is ultimately discharged into surface water and Perdido Bay, thanks to a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
The high point of this whole permitting process, according to Cooey, is that this industry has made improvements over the past 10 years, including the elimination of elemental chlorine. Since IP began operating the plant, it has also refined its processes, with plans to eliminate its hardwood bleaching line and process only softwood. “These changes will improve the quality of their wastewater,” says Cooey. “They anticipate a 70% reduction in the discharge of chloroform and the absorbable organic halides from their wastestream.
“Silvicultural activities in the past have impacted wetland areas across the South. But as part of the agreement, IP has committed to upgrading wetlands on their property, replanting them with hardwood wetland tree species and enhancing this entire area,” says Cooey. “This project has so many merits to it. We are really supportive of the restoration of wetlands as well as the upgrades IP is making to their process. The improvements will ensure that the discharge at the end of the pipeline, before the effluent goes into the wetlands, will meet the water quality criteria protective of Perdido Bay. We are not aware of any other wetland system like this in the nation.”
The district has also signed an agreement with the St. Joe Co., involving over 31,000 acres, including over 20,000 acres for conservation-restricted use. The plan is called an Ecosystem Management Agreement and will allow a comprehensive, regional approach to conservation and development by providing predictable community growth and resource protection.
“It gives the state a contiguous, high-quality wetlands corridor linking up with other properties that are also being preserved and managed under other programs,” says Cooey. “The net benefit is a real plus for us in this area where future development is inevitable.”
Northeast District
Pulp and paper mills, power plants, a phosphate mine, a chicken processing facility, and a large number of dairies make up the bulk of this district’s industries, covering an area from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic Ocean. Vince Seibold, water facilities administrator for the Northeast District of DEP, says the district works collaboratively with these various industries in dealing with complex challenges. For instance, the dairy industry now must do some renovations to its systems to comply with new rules.
“Some of our pulp and paper companies, Buckeye and Georgia Pacific, are instituting dramatic industrial wastewater improvements, similar to what’s taking place at International Paper’s Pensacola Mill,” says Seibold. “Those plants are now free of elemental chlorine waste. Another plant in Fernandina Beach reduced their dependence on elemental chlorine, though they still use it for some of their higher-quality end products.”
Concentrated in northern Florida near vast forestlands, the pulp and paper industry generates tens of millions of gallons of wastewater per day. During the production of paper, the raw wood from trees is broken down into cellulose fibers, or wood pulp. The manufacturing process may be mechanical, chemical, or a combination of both. During mechanical operations, the log is ground or refined to separate the fibers. This mechanically rendered pulp retains sap, sulfur compounds, sugar, and lignin, the binding substance in logs. Lignin reacts with UV light. Paper made from mechanical pulp tends to yellow upon exposure to light. Mechanical pulps find use in cardboards and newsprint.
During chemical processing, wood chips from de-barked logs are dissolved in sulfur and caustic soda through heat and pressure. This is the “rotten egg” smell near pulp mill facilities. Pulp is dark brown from the chemical effects on the lignin and sap removed from cellulose fibers. The wastes from chemical pulp are strong enough to need treatment.
Since most paper products are produced as white, pulp is typically bleached using chlorine gas, chlorine dioxide, sodium hypochlorite, or other related chlorine chemicals. The largest wastewater issue from paper and pulp manufacturing comes from bleaching byproducts forming when chlorine atoms bind to organic molecules in the pulp. While also generated from other sources, these compounds, called furans and dioxins, persist in the environment, settling in sediments and building up in living tissues. Many segments of the earth’s biosphere have been found to contain these deadly compounds, including human food sources, animal flesh, water, air, sediments, and soil.
The heavy biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in the pulp and paper industry’s effluent presents a wastewater problem. The high level of BOD in such wastewater is a threat because of resulting low levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water and subsequent harm to the biodiversity of aquatic organisms receiving water.
The USEPA has made the pulp and paper industry a top priority in a push to reduce the level of pollutants from its wastestream as a result of working on new technologies in the manufacturing process. Some of these include the use of oxygen for de-lignification, reduction of elemental chlorine for pulp bleaching by using chlorine dioxide instead, and eliminating chlorine through the use of peroxide or ozone for pulp bleaching.
Despite tremendous growth in domestic wastewater and drinking water source expansion, the Northeast District is not presently experiencing any large industry growth. “The area around Jacksonville is now catching up to the rest of the state in housing growth,” says Seibold, “It is one of the fastest-growing communities in the US.”
Central District
Many former industries in the Central District, including citrus processing plants, have moved. Area dairy operations have also moved to northern districts of Florida, and the Central District now generates a limited amount of industrial wastewater. Most of the industrial wastewater remaining is urban in nature. Numerous concrete batch plants service the large number of homebuilding operations. Car and truck washes in the district use recycle systems for wastewater.
Nearly all the IWW facilities in this district recycle their wastewater, according to Chris Ferraro, program administrator for water resource management, FDEP’s Central District office. “Due to stormwater concerns, we have certain requirements for retaining water onsite, but overall these industries present us with a fairly minor type of discharge,” says Ferrano.
The Kennedy Space Center is one notable industry in this district, as are the many theme parks in the center of the region. The space center has some issues with hazardous waste, but virtually all of its industrial wastewater streams are recycled. “The center has all sorts of internal requirements for the various contractors that are onsite to do work,” says Ferraro. “Their requirements for industrial wastewater are usually more stringent that those of the Florida DEP. The federal government itself puts a lot of emphasis on environmental protection.”
Many of the environmental issues for the space center and a nearby Air Force base are solved through partnering and working groups at the local, state, and federal level that meet on a quarterly basis, adds Jeff Prather, DEP ombudsman for the Central District.
Area theme parks present minor issues, such as the draining of the “Jaws Tank” at Universal Studios or the “Living Seas” at Disney’s Epcot. “The park already had a large pond in the event of such a draining,” says Ferraro. “But this was simply saltwater which had to be diluted.”
“Disney is a company with environmental professionals, great working relationships and plans for processing in place, so they’re easy to work with,” says Prather. “At one event a Disney vice president commented that they’ve been recycling since ‘before recycling was cool’. The company also put together a model wastewater reuse program throughout their parks. It helped tremendously in a severe statewide drought during the early 1990s.”
Very little discharge of domestic wastewater in this district goes to surface water. Much of its treated water goes to cooling towers, various manufacturing plants, agricultural or residential uses, golf courses, schools, and irrigation of highway medians. Since nearly 40% of what the district’s water treatment plants produce is used for irrigation, reusing wastewater conserves potable water for more desirable uses.
According to Ferraro, perhaps 90% of discharge from industry that now takes place will most likely be eliminated in the next five years. The district’s water sources are almost all groundwater, and the population continues to grow; therefore, the search continues for alternative water sources. “Use of surface water remains a substantially large untapped resource,” says Ferraro. “It takes much more energy and resources to treat such water and has always been a last resort. Surface water sources such as lakes and rivers contain more pollutants to deal with than groundwater. Surface supply is seasonal. During our dry season in April and May, you must have some ability to store that water for when it is needed, so reusing wastewater reduces the need to develop surface water sources.”
Another growing issue for coastal areas in this district is potable water facilities using brackish groundwater and a reverse osmosis process that generates a flow, 25% of which is a concentrate that must be disposed of. This water source is higher in dissolved solids along the coast, and the byproduct is classified as industrial wastewater because of the high accumulation of minerals.
“This water is disposed into surface waters of intracoastal estuaries or in deep-well injection,” says Ferraro.
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| In the Central District, very little discharge of domestic wastewater goes to the surface water. |
These wells are 1,200 to 1,500 feet deep, and are several confining layers below the aquifer used for the area’s potable water source. The layer where the wastewater is deposited must be ‘G-IV’ groundwater or greater than 10,000 mg of total dissolved solids (TDS). Because this waste product is basically concentrated groundwater, it tends to mix well with the groundwater it’s injected into, which is greater than 10,000 TDS.” It has only been within the past 15-20 years that communities in this district have gone to using such brackish groundwater, and deep-well injection of concentrate has been around only for that long as well.
Because of the district’s lack of a substantial industrial wastewater stream, problems from the string of hurricanes in 2004 were minimal, but challenges with domestic wastewater and drinking systems were significant with those storms. In the wake of the storms, Florida developed “FlaWARN,” modeled on the “CalWARN” system in California, a relief network for water and wastewater facilities and equipment.
“We’ve developed a Web site where utilities with resources can pair up with those areas that need help, whether from a natural disaster or terrorism,” says Ferraro. “Utilities in south Florida may communicate with those in the panhandle, for example. Resources are matched to where they are most needed by the people of the state.
“It’s a lot more organized than past relief efforts. This positive development was one of the few to come out of the 2004 hurricane season for central Florida and the rest of the state. It worked very well this year, though we didn’t experience what they had in the Gulf Coast.”
Southwest Region
This district has diverse sources for industrial wastewater. It has a large number of dairies and concentrated animal feed operations within its boundaries, as well as port facilities. The area also has a large number of concrete batch plants. There are a number of power plants in this region, including coal-burning plants. These are in the process of switching to new turbine technology. The nuclear plant in the region is located in Crystal River in Citrus County.
The power plants in Florida are for the most part powered by coal, oil, or natural gas. Challenges come from the wastes continuously discharged while these plants are in operation. The wastewater is generated from cooling systems, ash-handling systems, wet-scrubber air pollution control systems, and boiler blowdown operations. Washes may also come regularly from water treatment operations, including a cleaning or regenerative step as part of their cycle, (ion exchange, filtration, clarification, and evaporation). Various other wastes may be intermittently produced, but are generally associated with either the shutdown or startup of boilers.
Although the many recent hurricanes did not affect the area as much as they could have, the district does include Polk County, which received extensive damage from the four 2004 hurricanes. From the sewage wastewater perspective, inundation from these storms created many challenges for that area, too.
“The biggest challenge we see right now for our district in the immediate future for dealing with industrial wastewater comes with the new regulations for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, (CAFO), coming into effect from the EPA,” says Ilia Balcom, environmental manager for the industrial wastewater section in the Southwest DEP. “The state is now dealing with new regulations for large dairy operations and also some egg-producing chicken farms. But for us this is a new industry for federal government regulations. It is a big challenge for us at the moment.”
Part of the CAFO permit program requires that a nutrient management plan be prepared by specific engineers who are trained in this area of study. Balcom feels that there are simply not enough engineers out there who are trained in this area. “In our state alone there were 14 of these facilities that needed to be permitted within one year,” says Balcom. “There aren’t enough engineers around to do these. This is a clear challenge for us. We are currently only dealing with the largest of the farms. The state regulations are going to be requiring medium facilities to come in for some permitting as well. This will add even more to the demands on these engineers with agricultural backgrounds.”
Another challenge for the central region comes with the mining of phosphate. The phosphate deposits are relatively close to the surface and located in sandy, easily-moved soil. The industry deals with water issues with settling pond areas, where the possibility of dam breaching might have a damaging effect on the environment.
There are billions of gallons of water in these ponds atop stacks of phosphogypsum, a byproduct of phosphoric acid, which is used to make fertilizer. In the past, human error resulted in a breach that caused fish kills in the Alafia River.
The Florida Institute of Phosphate Research (FIPR) is aggressively seeking ways to improve the quality and reduce the quantity of acidic water used to transport the phosphogypsum from the processing plant to cooling ponds on top of stacks. It is also seeking ways to reduce the amount of phosphogypsum produced each year.
Southeast District
Six counties containing some of the most highly populated areas of the state make up the Southeast District. New development taking place in industry and industrial wastewater management is limited. The housing industry, as with other areas of the state, is booming; therefore, the main focus for industrial wastewater is the concrete batch plants in the area and agricultural development, according to Linda Horne, water facilities administrator for the Southeast District.
“Many citrus processing plants recycle the byproduct that comes off the orange juice process, including the washwater and cleanup water, for use on the groves,” says Horne. “We also have approximately 20 dairies in the Okeechobee Basin. Recently, the South Florida Water Management District funded the installation of “edge-of-farm” technologies for three local dairies. With this system, water is collected from high-intensity areas such as barns and feedlots, and is recycled and reused, along with stormwater, for irrigation or for washdown in other areas. Before the water flows offsite, it is treated to remove phosphorous. Onsite the water may be used for spraying livestock feed crops or in washdown areas.”
The recent hurricanes presented challenges for the dairy waste management systems in the Okeechobee Basin. They were originally designed to contain the runoff from a 24-hour, 25-year storm event. The 2004 hurricane season exceeded that threshold three times within a 30-day period. “Pumps that normally transfer wastewater were without power,” says Horne. “Therefore DEP stepped in with rented diesel-power pumps and facilitated pump-sharing to help protect the environment from direct wastewater discharge and moved the wastewater to an appropriate storage area.”
In 1997 a statewide rule was passed requiring concrete batch plants to capture and recycle all of the truck washout water. The rule also requires storm water treatment of the plant yard runoff to reduce the silt.
Since the district borders the Everglades ecosystem and National Park, the greatest concern is to maintain a supply of water to meet both the demands of this natural area and those of an expanding nearby human population. This is more of a problem involving development issues than those of industrial wastewater in the district, as this area is limited in runoff from those sources.
There are permanent sugarcane mills in the southern part of the district. “But as far as the Everglades, traditional industries have a minimal impact with the exception of agriculture. But it seems more of the sugar mills are leaving the area and the country as operations move to other areas of the world,” says Horne.
PETE HILDEBRANDT is a writer specializing in science and engineering topics.
OW - May/June 2006 |
