ABSTRACT
During the 1970s, water pollution regulations focused primarily on controlling conventional pollutants—oxygen-demanding materials, heat, and suspended solids. These pollutants had caused severe degradation of rivers, lakes, and streams. In response to these regulations, industries and municipalities spent billions of dollars constructing facilities to control the discharge of these pollutants. By the mid-1980s, regulators considered conventional pollution problems to be largely under control. Their focus shifted to the control of toxic chemicals and toxicity in general. The case study described here is an example of how one petroleum refinery is dealing with the need industrial waste managers are facing today —controlling toxicity in wastewater treatment plant effluent.
