TRSA Webinar Recap: Wastewater Challenges
The latest installment of TRSA’s monthly webinar series dealt with wastewater challenges facing today’s commercial laundries. The Sept. 17 presentation, titled “Emerging Wastewater Discharge Challenges” was hosted by John Schultz, senior manager of water, energy and wastewater solutions, Ecolab Inc. Textile Care Division.
Schultz kicked off the discussion to an aundience of nearly 80 attendees by listing the difficulties that today’s launderers face with regards to wastewater in their facilities. These include:
- Increasing water, wastewater and sewer rates
- Droughts, water-use restrictions and water-quality changes
- Wash chemical changes (NPE phaseout and green wash chemicals)
- Effluent limitations, rather than surcharges
During the hour-long presentation, Schultz detailed one way launderers are having their rate increases tied into compliance. “Let’s take a look at municipal grey water sources,” Schultz said. “Municipalities are required to operate with a permit and these permits are called NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permits. The law says we will not eliminate wastewater any more into our rivers and waterways. The POTWs (Publicly Owned Treatment Works) are receiving pressure from the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the government to recycle and reuse water.
“Many municipalities have gone in and put in the purple lines for the grey water system and are piping these to industrial areas. You may have somebody from the water and wastewater company make a joint call to you and say, ‘We have this program. It’s a grey water program and if you don’t join, you’re going to get a 45% water rate increase. If you do join, you’re only going to get a 20% water rate increase. Are you on board?’ Be aware of this because they will be coming and they are becoming more popular.”
Following a discussion of these challenges facing launderers, Schultz moved on to talk about the methods commercial laundries could use to remove BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) from wastewater discharged from plants. The presentation featured real data compiled in studies in commercial laundries serving various sectors of the industry, including industrial laundries that process heavy soils, as well as plants that process F&B linens.
The most recent webinar and the entire library of past webinar presentations are available for purchase online at the On Demand Learning Portal or by using the link above. TRSA’s next webinar will be “Managing OSHA Inspections” on Oct. 22 from 2-3 p.m. EST. The webinar will be presented by members of the TRSA Safety Committee.