Waste Water System

By January 2000, Professional Plating Inc. (PPI) reached a point where the wastewater system was causing production inefficiencies due to the lack of capacity to treat wastewater. System operation was six days a week for 24 hours a day. The system was a continuous flow through with chrome reduction, hydroxide precipitation, clarification and filtration through a filter press. The system was undersized with bottlenecks in rinse water equalization and flow rate. The sludge produced was classified as hazardous (F019).

As part of the charter of PPI to exceed customer expectations, while maintaining a commitment to environmental responsibility, PPI decided to make a commitment of $1.5 million, to invest in a new wastewater system that was engineered with the help of J. Mark Services, Grand Rapids, Michigan. The target was to purchase two continuous flow systems, in which one system would handle hazardous wastestreams and the other the non-hazardous wastestreams. This segregation of wastestreams, would allow a decrease in hazardous waste generation. System installation was complete in December 2001, eight months after project inception.

Holding capacity of water was tripled.
The retention time for chemical reaction was increased for maximum metal precipitation and flocculation while using less chemicals
System is operational for one shift Monday-Friday versus a three-shift six-day operation.
An alarm system was installed to shut the system down if pH or ORP ranges were out of specification.
All equalization tanks have low and high level alarms.
Data recorders were installed to track system performance history regarding flow rates, pH and ORP readings.

Economic returns are compared with the previous year.

A $65,000 savings in total wastewater operating expenses.
Chemical usage has decreased 11%
Labor has decreased 46%.
Hazardous waste generation has decreased 75% with a total decrease of sludge generation of 37%.

We believe any industry that is commingling hazardous and non-hazardous wastestreams should segregate these wastes to reach the economic returns and environmental stewardship we have experienced this past year.

Environmental benefits include a dramatic decrease in hazardous waste generated and disposal. We have seen an annual decrease of 300,000 pounds. Our removal of heavy metals from our wastewater is more efficient due to increased retention times and better settling. We have eliminated chloride-based coagulants for co-precipitation.

PPI communicated the start up of the new system and it’s environmental impact in local newspapers and notified customers by memorandum. Our web site continues to update our environmental commitment, as part of our responsibility to our team members and customers.

The purpose of the installation of our new system was to exceed customer expectations, while maintaining a commitment to environmental responsibility. We are continuing to meet customer needs by maintaining and reducing costs. Our commitment has resulted in developing new business opportunities with companies seeking a “Green” partnership. Additionally leading to being involved in having customers maintain or attain their ISO-14001 Certification.