ABSTRACT
Recent changes to Federal and State funding policies for publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) will eventually lead to increased user fees for industrial dischargers. Relatively recent activated sludge batch reactor technological advances are now available for the treatment of a number of wastewaters which have historically been regarded as difficult. High strength predominantly soluble carbohydrate type wastewaters, such as those from the food and allied processing industries including those from the dairy industry, are typical of this category. This chapter describes the use of a two basin Cyclic Activated Sludge System (CASS™) for the treatment of wastewaters generated from the Mid Valley Dairy fluid milk manufacturing facility in California. This facility which is regarded as one of the most advanced computer integrated fluid milk manufacturing plants in the United States, 1 receives 26 million pounds of raw milk per month via road tankers and operates with a six day processing week with two shifts totalling 20 hours operation per day. Production includes three million gallons per month of milk, 80,000 gallons per month of sweetened orange juice, 60,000 gallons per month of drinks and 50,000 gallons per month of bottled water. Historical records indicated a wastewater generation of about 140,000 gallons per day, characterized by wide variations in both hydraulic and organic loading parameters. The data base showed excursions of 800-8000 mg/L COD, 110-5400 mg/L BOD, 80-2600 mg/L total suspended solids which is quite typical for a fluid milk handling facility (Figure 1).
