| Abstract |
The report gives results of the first phase of a study to provide chemical and toxicological baseline data on wastewater samples collected from textile plants in the U.S. Raw waste and secondary effluent wastewater samples were analyzed for 129 consent decree priority pollutants, effluent guidelines criteria pollutants, and nutrients. Level 1 chemical analyses were also performed. Secondary effluent samples from the 23 plants selected for study in the EPA/ATMI BATEA Study (American Textile Manufacturers Institute/best available technology economically achievable) (EPA Grant 804329) were submitted for the following bioassays: mutagenicity, cytotoxicity, clonal assay, freshwater ecology series (fathead minnows, Daphnia, and algae), marine ecology series (sheepshead minnows, grass shrimp, and algae), 14-day rat acute toxicity, and soil microcosm. The bioassay results indicated that 10 of the 23 textile plants have secondary effluents sufficiently toxic to proceed to a second phase of the study. In the second phase, samples will be collected from these 10 plants to determine the level of toxicity removal attained by selected tertiary treatment technologies. |
