My concern centers around the alkaline cleaner stage. Current practice has been to dump this stage as is. Just before the last dump, I checked the pH and found it to be 12.7. I checked our wastewater discharge permit and the only pH limitation it has is that it prohibits pH less than 5.5. In other words, it has no upper pH limit. At my two other jobs, we were told discharging a wastewater of that high pH was “illegal according to EPA.” Since my discharge permit gives me no upper pH limit, am I OK?
As the quality manager of a large job shop metal finishing facility and recent restructuring, I now have responsibility for environmental issues. While we knowingly do not purchase any lead or lead containing products, nonetheless, we know lead is present due to detectable concentrations found in our wastewater treatment filter press cake; lead is always non-detectable in our wastewater discharge. How do I better document whether or not I need to report for lead?
I am looking for advice on emission equipment to meet 10 pounds per day requirement for releasing isopropyl alcohol. Our current process emits about 30 pounds per day of isopropyl alcohol into the air.
In your reply to DW in the January issues (“Spent Bulbs as Hazwaste”), you stated that New York and California mandates that all spent fluorescent bulbs are to be recycled no matter their mercury content. That statement is partially true. In New York there is an exemption for small businesses.
I wish to emphasize the significance of one critical word in your response “...usually fitted with green end caps and certified to pass TCLP”. Unless you have that certification on hand for your lamps, or TCLP results from a certified laboratory, you may find during your next inspection that the cost of (mis)managing your lamps has more than erased all the savings you made.
We have a wastewater pretreatment system that consists of several sumps and holding tanks. For level control, we use mercury float switches. Periodically, these go bad and have to be replaced. Since spent fluorescent lamps contain mercury and can’t be thrown into our regular trash, what do we do about these switches?
I would like more information on the organic sulfide precipitant described in the November 2006 column, “Reactive Waste or Not." Does it really work better than conventional neutralization/precipitation using acid/caustic and a flocculant?
While there appears to be a worthwhile savings if we use the bulb crusher, we have been under the impression that spent fluorescent and metal halide lamps are hazardous waste if they are crushed. They say it is not. Could you give us some
guidance?
Do you have any more insight on this pesky issue? Since the permit limitation for molybdenum has significantly changed, the city is giving us some time to address the issue before they start issuing notices of violation.
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