L .: :.iy 2A iegion I Ana1 1e t1t1t?1c t INDUSTRIAL WASTE SURVEY ROPE VALLEY DYEING CORP. WEST WARWICK, R. I. APRIL 18, 1974 ------- Industrial Waste Survey Hope Valley Dyeing Corp. West Warwick, R. I. April 18, 1974 Background On April 18, 1974, personnel from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region I, Surveillance and Analysis Division visited Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation (See Figure 1) to collect water samples which would show the discharge of pollutants to the South Branch of the Paw- tuxet River. EPA’s Enforcement Division requested the sampling because Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation had failed to submit a completed permit application. Therefore, EPA could not process the permit. Furthermore, Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation’s failure to furnish the information as requested does not entitle it to the exemption from prosecution under Sections 301, 306 and 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act as amended, 33 u.s.c. 1342. This failure resulted in EPA’s issuing an order on February 28, 1974 instructing them to document to EPA within thirty days the company’s intent to join a municipal waste water treat- ment system. On April 16, 1974, EPA had not received the requested. documentation. Since Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation had been uncooperative and recalcitrant about voluntarily supplying information to EPA in the past, EPA’s Enforcement Branch requested a search warrant authorizing EPA per- sonnel to collect evidence of the discharge of pollutants to the South Branch of the Pawtuxet River. On April 16, the search warrant was issued and on April 18, EPA personnel accompanied by a Deputy U. S. Marshall ------- K J - ..L4 r >’ : : t 1 ; ‘ 2! N -- RhL - 23O ) S : / \‘S f / ,/ 3 4230” / J 4 3 I - ‘9 _ / ____ i ‘f ‘-s. -r ,— I I-\ “ ‘ •/ - I joJ , ‘ :_ DYEING / CORPORATION ‘ ‘, ‘ 1 r ‘ ‘ ‘ )i ) ‘ --- jc S I / / / I .jOfl F)tQfl 0 : :\:.‘I - . CO’S ’ t / -3_ I \ .. /‘ J\ . 1 / . )jfl;\ : .) . “H I ‘/r( FIGUIRE1 j / 2 ‘ (A / LOCATION ------- 2. and a representative of the R. I. Department of Public Health entered the premises of Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation for the purpose of collect- ing the needed evidence. These persons met with Mr. Howard Westerman, Plant Manager. When the EPA representatives stated their purpose for the visit, Mr. Westerman was most cooperative and invited the EPA personnel to collect any samples they wished. Following the receipt of this per- mission, the (Deputy) U. S. Marshall identified himself and explained that a search warrant had been procured in the event that cooperation had not been received and at that time served the warrant. In conversations with Mr. Westerinan, the sampling crew learned that Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation had received permission from the town of West Warwick to join the municipal sewerage system. The EPA personnel requested that Mr. Westerman supply them with a copy of the town’s accept- ance letter. Mr. Westerman stated that Mr. Benny DeCarlo, Sanitation Superintendent for the town of West Warwick, had verbally approved the sewer connection, and Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation had not received formal notification, i.e., an acceptance letter. Mr. Westerman had also been told that if the town processed his application and did not return the $100 application fee, his project was approved and the town does not send acceptance letters. The representative of the R. I. Department of Public Health telephoned Mr. DeCarlo and confirmed Mr. Westerman’s statement. In that telephone conversation, Mr. DeCarlo said that they had processed Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation’s application for sewage connec- tion and had then requested plans be submitted. The plans were submitted and reviewed by Mr. DeCarlo; be also discussed them with Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation’s contractor (Richard F. Dietz, P.E.) and had then given verbal ------- 3. approval. Mr. Westerman then gave copies of the plans for the proposed sewer connection to EPA personnel. At the request of the R.I. representa- tive, Mr. Westerman provided a guide (identified as Gus, a department supervisor), who conducted the visiting personnel on a plant tour. Plant Processes Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation is a textile finishing mill. Gray goods of cotton, nylon and polyester are finished for ultimate use in the garment industry. Operations include scouring, bleaching, dyeing and finishing of fabrics. The corporation’s primary product is a light—colored lace, such as that used on ladies’ undergarments. Some dark dyeing is done, but this is minimal and primarily on polyester knits. A schematic of the unit processes is shown in Figure 2. Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation uses approximately 1.5 million gallons of process water per day and draws from two sources—— West Warwick municipal water supply and the South Branch of the Pawtuxet River. Currently, the plant’s process water consists of 95% municipal water and 5% river water. The river water is used only in dyeing dark goods and washdown operations. The municipal water feedline incorporates a Fram liquid filter. The filter is normally bypassed, but may be put in service if the water depart- ment is working on the lines. Use of the filter prevents rust and sediment from entering the process area. It is a disposable cartridge—type filter; thus, backwashing is unnecessary. Water from the river is pumped to a holding reservoir approximately one—half mile from the plant. It is then gravity—fed to the plant on an “as—needed” basis. The reservoir water entering the plant is metered and coagulant aids (soda ash and alum) are pr9portionately fed to a chemical ------- W 1 i p 0 t I ‘ I Qs 1’ ) iq I ‘ I Ill “I Z L - - oL DYES DRY Pi JI$ l(O / Gee P S ------- 4. reaction chamber. From the reaction chamber, the water passes through rapid sand filters before entering the process line. These sand filters may be operated individually, in series, or in parallel. At the time of the visit, the filters were operating in parallel. Waste Sources The waste sources may be generally divided in three broad categories: (1) Sanitary wastes, (2) Filter backwash wastes, and (3) Industrial Pro- cess wastes. The sanitary wastes are connected to the municipal sewerage system. The remaining two categories are untreated and discharge to the South Branch of the Pawtuxet River. The rapid sand filters are backwashed simultaneously twice daily, and accumulated sludge from the chemical reaction chamber is withdrawn once or twice a day. These materials join the industrial process wastes at a manhole outside the southwest corner of the dyehouse. (See Figure 3.) This manhole is the only place where the combined wastes can be sampled before they enter the South Branch of the Pawtuxet River. The major waste producing processes are scouring, bleaching, dyeing, rinsing of the fabric, and finishing (softening or starching). Liquid waste from the various vats are discharged to floor trenches. Waste from the finishing operations are separate from the other processes until entering a manhole outside the plant. All liquid industrial wastes combine in this manhole and then discharge to a tailrace which enters the South Branch of the Pawtuxet River. The industrial wastes are characterized by suspended solids, apparent color, organic materials, nutrients, and possibly heavy metals. The effluent flow and characteristics are non—uniform since the scouring, bleaching, rinsing, dyeing and finishing operations are batch processes. ------- PIANr -1- C’ 1, 1 Ot15E / I-. / 4, a •s’4__ -I- ‘ vs 4 4, L oad,n r i7ock FIGURE 3 ______ INDUSTRIAL WASTE FLOWS j HOPE VALLEY DYEING CORP.’, WEST WARWICK, RHODE ISLAND ------- - 5. Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation West Warwick, R. I. Table 1 Location 1 - and Description of Sampling _ Stations Station Description HVDE Manhole located outside southwest corner of the dyeing room. All industrial wastes, filter backwash, and roof drainage meet here. HVDIRR Sampling point for unfiltered reservoir water. A faucet located next to chemical feed pump on southeast wall of water treatment plant. HVDIR Sampling point for filtered reservoir process water. A washdown hose located in the center of the dyeing room. HVDfl4 Sampling point for municipal process water. A “make —up ’ t water line feeding dyeing vat on most easterly dyeing line. 1. Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation’s industrial wastes ultimately discharge to the South Branch of the Pawtuxet River at latitude 4l0_4l?_lOl and longitude 71°—32’—Ol”. ------- 6. The Sampling Program The purpose of the sampling program was to show the discharge of pollutants to the South Branch of the Pawtuxet River; therefore, the sampling stations were selected to compare the water quality of the effluent with the quality of the influent process water. Four stations were selected: 1. The municipal process water. 2. The inf].uent reservoir water before filtration. 3. The reservoir water after filtration. 4. The final combined effluent. Table 1 locates and describes the selected stations. Except for the unfiltered reservoir water, all others were sampled three times. The unfiltered reservoir water was sampled once. On every run, samples were collected for five—day biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids (fixed and volatile), total organic carbon, total phosphorus, and metals analyses. Analytical Results The metals analyses were scans using X—ray spectrofluorometry techniques. Analyses were conducted first on the effluent samples. These showed copper, zinc and iron to be sometimes present. The concen- trations detected were approximately 2.0 mg/i. These concentrations are not considered significant enough to warrant further scans on the in— fluent samples. The results of these scans are shown in Table 2 and the other analyses in Table 3. ------- 7. Table 2 Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation April 18, 1974 Metal Analyses at Station HVDE Lab. Total Dissolved Number Time Metals Metals 38717 1325 Copper 2 mg/i Copper* Zinc* Zinc* tron* 38723 1350 Zinc 2 mg/i Zinc 2 mg/i Copper* 38726 1410 Copper 2 mg/i Copper .2 mg/i Zinc* * Trace detected Important to note is that the effluent samples collected at 1325 hours and 1410 hours were very hot. The field crew were unable to hold the filled sample containers bare handed. Although temperatures were not meas- ured in the field, laboratory temperature measurements at approximately 1630 hours recorded 38°C and 46°C for the respective samples. The sample collected at 1350 hours did not seem unusually warm. Laboratory temperature measurement was 25°C. ------- Table 3 Analytical Results Hope Valley Dyeing Corporation West Warwick, R. I. Time BOD TOC Total P Total Residue Total Flit. Residue Total Vol. Residue ( Hours) mgd mg/i mg/i mg/i mg/i mg/i HVDE 1325 580 291 119 880 880 360 1350 60 76.8 3.il 270 230 50 1410 400 351 i54 1400 970 510 HVDIM 1305 1(1.1 53.5 0.07 150 — 20 1340 Kl.1 33.7 0.13 160 140 50 1400 Kl.l 43.0 0.05 130 130 20 HVDIR 1315 1.4 49.1 0.11 130 130 5 1345 2.8 19.7 0.14 150 120 20 1405 2.7 44.7 0.11 160 140 50 HVDIRR 1215 6.2 91.0 0.05 90 70 . ------- 9..- ; SA} LE ANALYSES Abbreviations and Unit of Measurements Analyses Reported Description Measured In Total Metals Elemental Metals (Total) Milligrams per liter (mg/i) Dissolved Metals Elemental Metals mg/i (Dissolved) BOO 5 5—day Biochemical mg/i Oxygen -Demand - Incubated at 200 Cei tigrade TOC Total Organic Carbon mg/i Total P Total Phosphorus mg/i Total Residue Total Residue (Solids) mg/i Total Filt. Residue Total Filterable mg/i Residue (Dissolved Solids) Total Vol. Residue Total Volatile Residue (Solids) mg/i ------- |