In the spring of 1989, Beale AFB in California was issued a Cease and Desist Order from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (CRWQCB) to halt all operations involving the discharge of photographic chemical waste and wash waters into its photographic waste treatment facility. At that time, up to 88,000 gallons of highly contaminated photographic waste and wastewater was being routed to the base treatment facility daily. In order to maintain the photo processing capability and to comply with the CRWQCB requirements, a one of a kind, True Zero Discharge Pollution Control System was designed which resulted in a total discontinuance of drainage to the base waste treatment facility. The drains from the building were literally cemented shut. The idea was not only intended to remove the Cease and Desist Order, but also to cause the CRWQCB and EPA to lose interest in the Beale AFB photo lab.

In order to design a True Zero Discharge Pollution Control System to include the photo wash water, it was first necessary to reduce the high volume of wash water being used in the process. This was accomplished by utilizing a previously designed water conservation system (WCS) applied to all film processing units. This WCS system reduced the wash water flow volume per processing machine from 1,200 gallons per hour to 15 gallons per hour with no adverse affects on the film process. The result was a total hazardous chemical waste discharge from the lab of less than 2,000 gallons per day.

The pollution control system that was designed for the Beale AFB photo lab consisted of vacuum evaporators, which separate the water from the chemical waste. Within the vacuum evaporators, the chemical becomes a pumpable sludge concentrate representing approximately 3% of the total original solution, and the distillate (water) discharged from the evaporators represents approximately 97% of the original solution. In the second step of the process, the distillate is further refined through polishing. The water is processed through reverse osmosis units, which remove organic and inorganic chemicals, and a deionization system that completes the polishing process. The polished water, which is ultra pure water, is recycled back into the lab for chemical mixing and film wash water. In addition, pH control, carbon and particulate filtration, ozonation and nitrogen infusion, and electrolytic silver recovery are incorporated within the system.

The Beale AFB pollution control system reduced the 88,000 gallon per day hazardous waste stream from the photographic lab to the base photographic waste treatment facility to approximately 22 gallons per day of concentrated waste sludge which is collected and recycled by the Defense Reutilization and Management Service (DRMS). The lab has used the recycled water continuously for more than eight years. The California EPA has since then rescinded the Cease and Desist Order and classified the lab as a recycling process exempt from permitting. A benchmark now has been established for the advancements and continuing improvements that the squadron is making with its photographic chemical waste pollution control system. This system can easily be applied to any facility where water-based chemistry is used.

According to the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center, The Beale AFB Zero Discharge System is a very large system and would best be suited for plating shops with large volumes of effluent wastewater.. The vacuum distillation units delivered to NAS Oceana for their Imaging Center field testing were much smaller and off-the shelf. The three units were a Brittel, a Noritsu and a Calfran. Two of the units had a 50 gallons/day photo wastewater effluent capacity and the other 12 gallons/day. Oceana personnel were very pleased with their performance. NAS Oceana Imaging Center supports about 600 commands according to the P2 manager, and is the largest in the Navy. Their focus now is to convert to digital as best and as fast as they can. Nevertheless, their current chemical photographic processing load is not large enough to sustain one 50 gal/day unit on a daily basis.

The compliance benefits listed here are only meant to be used as a general guideline and are not meant to be strictly interpreted. Actual compliance benefits will vary depending on the factors involved, e.g. the amount of workload involved.

Consult your local industrial health specialist, your local health and safety personnel, and the appropriate material safety data sheet (MSDS) prior to implementing this technology.

• Recovers 100% of metals for recycling.
• Recovers 97% of water for reuse.
• Eliminates or reduces the generation of hazardous sludge at publicly owned treatment works (POTW).
• Eliminates waste and waste water discharges to domestic sewer plants or publicly owned treatment works (POTW).
• A reduction of 99% in water usage.
• Total reduction of waste products are possible for complete zero discharge and sludge recovery.

None identified

Houston Fearless 76, Inc. has completed five years of evaluation and testing of Beale AFB Zero Discharge System. The capital cost associated with the project design and construction totaled approximately $1.5 million, which includes extensive research and development (R&D). The installation of a similar system would be $600,000 to $800,000 dollars without the extensive R&D. The three units installed at NAS Oceana now are in the $5K to $10K range.

Assumptions:

Water Usage

• The old method of processing used 87,000 gallons of potable water a day or 15,840,000 gallons per year. At a cost of $1.65/1000 gallons or $26,136.00 dollars per year.
• The Zero Discharge System uses 2,000 gallons per year of make-up water at a cost of $1.65/1000 gallons or a cost of $3.30 a year.
• For Beale AFB, the Zero Discharge system results in annual savings of $26,132.70 in water usage.

• Cost of the conventional wastewater treatment = $50/1000 gallons
• Cost of the conventional treatment of chrome bearing waste = $950/1000 gallons
• Cost of the conventional treatment of silver bearing waste = $100/1000 gallons
• The old method processed 1,500,000 gallons per year of waste containing silver, cadmium, and chrome. Since the Beale AFB wastewater treatment plant was incapable of treating the waste to comply with the NEPDES requirement, no cost comparison can be made.

• Conventional HW Disposal Cost: $1,000,000
• New method of treating waste processed = 250,000 gallons per year
• Waste sludge disposal = 7,5000 gallons
• Total cost of treatment = $42,500.00
• Cost of Zero discharge waste and waste water treatment = $170.00/1000 gallons

Click Here to view an Active Spreadsheet for this Economic Analysis and Enter Your Own Values.

Approval is controlled locally and should be implemented only after engineering approval has been granted. Major claimant approval is not required.