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FIELD AND LABORATORY STUDIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFFLUENT STANDARDS FOR THE STEAM ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY
Citation:
Mesich, F. AND M. Owen. FIELD AND LABORATORY STUDIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFFLUENT STANDARDS FOR THE STEAM ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/7-78/209 (NTIS PB299097), 1978.
Description:
The report gives results of an evaluation of carbon absorption, chemical precipitation, reverse osmosis, and vapor compression distillation (VCD) as removal technologies for priority pollutants from wastewater streams of utility power plants. All but VCD were bench-scale tested for the removal of low concentration (1-50 ppb) pollutants from cooling tower blowdown and ash pond effluents at three coal-fired plants. The removal of organic pollutants (by activated carbon and reverse osmosis) and inorganic pollutants (by chemical precipitation and reverse osmosis) were evaluated at these plants. An operational VCD unit handling a combined waste stream was tested for the removal of both organic and inorganic pollutants at a fourth coal-fired plant. Samples of plant make-up water, cooling tower blowdown, ash pond effluent, and effluent waters from the treatment technologies were analyzed for priority organic and inorganic pollutants. Only eight pollutants were measured in concentrations greater than 10 ppb; none of these were common to all the plants studied. Carbon absorption and reverse osmosis removed priority pollutants, but low concentrations prevented definitive conclusions on their removal effectiveness. Chemical precipitation, reverse osmosis, and VCD effectively reduced low concentration inorganic compounds, including arsenic, copper, and lead, all of which were present in significant concentrations in at least one wastewater stream.