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Back to the Binational Toxics Strategy Chapter 4 - RE-RELEASES OF MERCURY FROM MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT Previous SectionTable of ContentsNext Section
Introduction

In this section, a release table is provided for the Municipal Wastewater Treatment source sector. This source sector represents “re-release” which includes mercury discharged to the sewer system from industries, hospitals, dental facilities and others. Mercury use and releases from many of these sources are estimated in other source sectors. The municipal wastewater treatment sector was included for comparison purposes, as well as to illustrate the fate of some of the mercury releases in the Greater Milwaukee Area.

This source sector includes mercury released due to : wastewater discharge, sludge, volatilization from aeration operations and volatilization from the sludge drying and dewatering process.

Detailed calculations for mercury in municipal wastewater treatment are provided in Appendix B. Re-releases are summarized in Table 4 and Figure 5.

Table 4 : Re-Releases of Mercury from Municipal Wastewater Treatment
Sector Amount (pounds) Percent of Total
Wastewater Discharge to Surface Waters 5 2%
Wastewater Sludge 179 80%
Volatilization from Wastewater Aeration Tanks 33 15%
Emissions from Drying and Dewatering Stack 7 3%
Total Re-Releases 224 100%
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This Page created March 11, 1998
Revised: May 07, 2002
Maintained by Pranas Pranckevicius, USEPA - GLNPO
URL: http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/bns/milwaukeehg/chapter4.html