Waste Treatment System At Foreiv,
Favir unit uses air flotation to separate oil particles from
water. Sludge collected by skimmers will be incinerated.
Water goes on to two lagoons where areation takes place.
One of the lagoons used for aeration. In this import*''^
water treatment process, large aerators throw
into the air enabling it to pick up oxyg®’’'
A waste water treatment system
which eliminates the disposal problem
and at the same time provides badly
needed additional water for produc
tion processing is in operation at Field-
crest Mills’ Foremost Screen Print
plant at Stokesdale.
The system is unique in that it re
cycles 100% of the waste water, re
claiming for repeated use all but a
small amount lost through evaporation
and infiltration. The only new water
added each day is that used for domes
tic purposes.
The Foremost plant uses several
thousand gallons of water per day in
screen printing sheets, towels, bed
spreads, etc. Because no public water
supply is available, the plant must
rely on deep wells on the premises to
provide water for processing and for
domestic use. Since the plant was es
tablished in 1963 seven wells have been
dug, but only four of the wells pro
duced water.
the fact that waste water from the
screen printing process contains dye
pigments in an emulsion with adhesives
and thinners. The thinners contain pe
troleum which is hard to separate and
remove in the waste treatment process.
The recently-completed system solved
both problems. The new set-up, one of
the first of its kind in the nation, com
bines six accepted methods of water
treatment: air flotation and skimming,
extended aeration, chemical coagula
tion, filtration, chlorination and incin
eration.
other
system and inoculate
waste.
The remainder of the water
a second lagoon where addih®J
tion takes place. The water
m
to a lift station where it is P'j
a chemical water treatment
chemical coagulation removes ^
and turbidity. i
tw
Foremost faced the dilemma of a lim
ited supply of water with steadily in
creasing requirements for water. An
other, more long-standing, problem was
that of waste disposal. For a period of
years, the plant worked on the problem,
employing various methods of disposal.
Process changes and growth made
waste treatment increasingly difficult.
A troublesome part of the problem was
An incinerator is on order for dis
posing of solid matter consisting of dye
pigments skimmed from the water. The
sludge is to be burned by a gas flame
in a process meeting all of the stand
ards of air pollution control.
To begin its journey through the
system, domestic and mill waste flows
by gravity to a collection tank from
which it is pumped at a constant rate
through air flotation skimming tanks.
Here, the pigmented sludge is separ
ated from the water and will later be
disposed of by incineration.
The water flows from the treatment
tank to an aerated lagoon where aerat
ing and mixing is done by electrically
powered aerators. At this point, a por
tion of the water is recycled through
the collection tank and separator for
the purposes of dilution, to balance the
From this precipitator, .,
flows through regular water P
filters to remove any smal* j,
that did not settle in the j
water is then chlorinated ai* _
linity adjusted as it flows to
gallon clean water storage ta>
From this tank, the water i
back into the plant for re-a®.
duction processing, the cycle P
stantly repeated. While
water has the clarity of city
is used only for process purp®’
water from the deep wells
drinking water.
To make sure that all parts
ment are functioning pr®*
pumps and control points are
monitored and an annunci®
alerts the operator whenever
ment fails to operate property
off. ,
The system was designed
crest engineers who had the^^jj
assistance of outside eaS^ •
(Continued on Page b*
THE MILL WHlSt*^