United States
                                 Environmental Protection
                                 Agency
                                                               Office of Water
                                                               (WH-547)
                                    EPA 832-F-93-009
                                    September 1993
         &EPA
                             Centralized  Treatment  &
                             Recovery
      Case Studies
o
f-
o
 PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
     On July 1, 1988. one of the first centralized treatment and
 recovery facilities (CTRFs) in the country began operation in
 Roseville, Minnesota. The CTRF is called U.S. Filter
 Recovery Services, Inc. (USFRS), formerly Metro Recovery
 Systems (MRS). The CTRF receives, treats, and recycles
 inorganic wastes from metal finishing, electroplating, and
 printed circuit board manufacturing industries. Much of this
 waste is typically discharged as wastewater to POTWs.
 USFRS uses several waste recovery and treatment technologies
 that minimize sludge output at a significant cost savings relative
 to in-house treatment.

     USFRS was originally built as a joint venture partnership
 by the Metropolitan Recovery Corporation (MRC), a company
 comprised of over 20 metal finishing firms, and Lancy
 Recovery Inc., a subsidiary of Lancy International, which has
 commissioned thousands of industrial waste treatment and
 recovery systems all over the world.  The $11 million project
 was funded primarily by equity contributions from Lancy and
 Metropolitan Recovery Corp. as well as a taxable industrial
 revenue bond issued by the St. Paul Municipal Bond Fund A
 small portion of the project was funded by government grants
and through penalty money .collected by the Metropolitan
Waste Control Commission (MWCC).  On July 1,1992, U.S.
Filter Corporation completed its year-long process of acquiring
MRS. Established in 1953, U.S. Filter Corporation designs
and manufactures complete lines of equipment for water
filtration, water treatment, and wastewater treatment for
industrial and municipal customers. With technical and
manufacturing support from other U.S. Filter Corporation
subsidiaries, USFRS intends to introduce new technologies for
metals recovery, effluent polishing, waste treatment, and
hazardous sludge stabilization.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVE
     Requirements to remove wastes, especially metals, from
 wastewater prior to its release into municipal sewers results in
 facilities using in-plant recovery  operations. Although
 individual in-plant treatment systems are effective, their
operating costs are potentially high due to costs associated with
 sludge disposal. Sludge, which typically consists of metals and
 other materials from the process, must be disposed ara
 hazardous waste. The objectives of a CTRF are to comply
 with wastewater pretreatment requirements, lower compliance
 costs, and minimize sludge generation and disposal by
 recovering and selling metals.

      USFRS collects wastewaters from individual firms,
 recovers metals, and treats the remaining wastes to meet all
 local, state, and federal standards.  The principal goal at
 USFRS is recovery of heavy metals including zinc, copper,
 nickel, cadmium, chromium, and lead. Other wastes being
 treated include acids, alkalies, chromates, cyanide solutions,
 and metal hydroxide sludges. Industrial organic wastes are
 accepted for transfer to other disposal or treatment facilities.
 USFRS recovers materials for further use and offers local
 industries an alternative to building and operating their own
 pretreatment facilities.

 PROGRAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS
     The key to USFRS's recovery and recycling service is
 waste segregation at the source. Segregating wastes at the
 source allows  USFRS to treat rinsewaters as well as
 concentrated wastes while maximizing the opportunity for
 recovery. Once wastes from different processes, with  different
 contaminants,  are mixed together, the energy required for
 recovery is often greater than the value of the recovered
 material itself. A CTRF can help industrial firms identify the
 best way to segregate their waste streams to achieve lower
 operating costs, acceptable effluent quality, and a high recovery
 potential; which, in turn, makes it easier for the POTW to
 comply with its discharge permit through more predictable
 influent loading rates and less load on the treatment works.

     Analyses undertaken during the planning stages, as well
 as experience from operations to date, indicate that centralized
 treatment and recovery of liquid industrial waste can be cost
 effective for most of the area's surface finishing and electronics
 manufacturing plants. In the past four years, USFRS has
grown from  serving 23 firms to well over 300 and from
operating one shift to operating around-the-clock.
                           l>  % Printed on Recycled Paper

-------
      According to their representatives, USFRS has reduced
 the amount of sludge produced to nearly a sixth of what would
 result from conventional pretreatment technologies. In a recent
 study by MWCC of loadings from USFRS and USFRS's full
 service users (i.e., those users for which USFRS supplies ion
 exchange canisters, retrieval of spent canisters, and treatment of
 batch discharges), USFRS has reduced the total loading of
 metals to MWCC's plants by 89 percent from 1987 to 1991,
 while total waste loads increased by 10 percent. Major
 reductions for individual metals were achieved: zinc (93
 percent), cadmium (91 percent), copper (91 percent), chromium
 (77 percent), nickel (75 percent), and lead (71 percent). The
 facility was one of 14 hazardous waste facilities nationwide to
 win the 1991 Environmental Compliance Award granted by
 Environmental Information Ltd. for full compliance with EPA
 regulations.

         With the help of USFRS, MWCC has made great
 strides and reduced the amount of metals in their influent by
 more than 100,000 Ibs. per year.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
     To receive an update on USFRS, contact Earl E. Finder
at (612) 633-0079. For information on MWCC's role in
central treatment and recovery contact Jeff Syme at (612) 229-
2109 or write to:

             U.S. Filter Recovery Services, Inc.
                    2430 Rose Place
               Roseville, Minnesota 55113
                          or
          Metropolitan Waste Control Commission
            Means Park Center, 230 East Fifth St.
                St. Paul, Minnesota 55101
?  For additional information about the MWPP Program, contact the U.S. EPA Office of Wastewater Enforcement an
I  Compliance, (202) 260-5856.
§
a

-------