Featured facility: Kodak's King's Landing Plant

Eastman Kodak Company operates a complex manufacturing facility at Kodak Park in Rochester. Kodak park is the world's largest photographic product manufacturing facility supporting about 13,000 employees. The Park is a highly integrated manufacturing facility that covers 160 buildings. The buildings discharge wastewater effluents that contain a wide variety of industrial wastes. To help to manage the facility, Kodak has an environmental policy requiring compliance with regulations, prevention of pollution, and continual improvement. To enhance Kodak's environmental efforts, Kodak Park achieved certification with the international environmental standard ISO 14001.

The King's Landing Plant handles the industrial wastewater from Kodak Park. The plant is located at the east end of the Park on a 30-acre plot formed by a bend in the Genesee River.

History

Kodak Park's treatment plant was named King's Landing after one of the first families of European settlers that came to the Rochester area. The site on which the treatment plant is located was once a city landfill, itself built on a swamp. Because of the high water table, the treatment tanks were built at ground level and fill was later brought in to raise the ground level around the tanks.

The treatment plant opened in 1957 with two primary clarifiers and sludge holding tanks. Since the plant started operating, many improvements and upgrades have taken place. In the early 1970s, advanced secondary treatment was added. It uses two trickling filters and a complete mix activated sludge system. In the mid-1970s, a multiple hearth incinerator and plate-and-frame presses were added for improved sludge management. In the early '80s, another building was built and put into service; it houses a shop, offices, chemical tanks, and dissolved air flotation thickeners. At the end of the '80s, two 1.5-meter belt presses were installed to replace the plate-and-frame presses. In 1994, the incinerator's air pollution control equipment system was replaced with advanced technology to enable the facility to meet or exceed requirements for burning hazardous waste sludge. The grit system was upgraded in 1996 when a hydrogritter system replaced the shaker screens.

Primary treatment plant and sludge holding tank area.

Facts about the plant

The King's Landing WPT treats 28 mgd of industrial waste. The Plant has the following hydraulic capacity:

The Plant is a combination of primary and secondary treatment facilities for removal of solids and dissolved organic materials. The secondary treatment system is rated for BOD5 at 141,000 lb/day.

Discharges must meet SPDES requirements before reaching the Genesee River. Since the Plant operates a multiple-hearth incinerator, it is also regulated by RCRA (Resource Recovery and Conservation Act) and is considered a hazardous waste treatment facility. Strict operating limitations and guidelines govern the incinerator.

The Plant operates 24-hr/day 7 days/week. Four shifts of three operators run the facility; they are supported by operations personnel and management, maintenance, technicians, and engineers during the day shift. Many of the operators are NYS-certified, and Kodak actively supports wastewater training efforts.

Analytical equipment

Operators at King's Landing use many on-line instruments to monitor the treatment process. Because the pH of the plant influent can be extremely variable, on-line pH probes monitor the influent, the primary treated wastewater, and the effluent. Dissolved oxygen probes are used in the aeration basins for process control. The industrial nature of the influent requires stringent monitoring to ensure proper treatment and protection of the biomass. Two on-line TOC (total organic carbon) analyzers measure loading and removal; they are operated in total carbon mode. The plant also uses an on-line gas chromatography system that incorporates sample conditioning equipment and four gas chromatographs (GC) that analyze the plant's influent for thirty common solvents. The on-line GC system automatically performs an analysis every 20 min around the clock. All analytical systems are linked to the plant's distributed control system so that the data can be viewed from the control room. Alarms notify the operators of unusual conditions.

The flow route

Wastewater from Kodak Park is conveyed in the industrial sewer system to preliminary treatment. There, it passes through a mechanical bar screen and aerated grit removal chamber. It then flows through an above-ground pipeline to the treatment plant. In the event of excess hydraulic loading or an unfavorable influent stream, the wastewater can be diverted to a 2 million gal storm tank for later release to the primary plant at a controlled rate. A hydroelectric turbine installed at the foot of the bluff removes the kinetic energy built-up by the head loss and produces 300-375 kW (at 480 V) of electrical power. This energy could power one of the 500-hp axial compressors; that is about 10% of the plant's energy requirements.

The influent is base-loaded with lime slurry for pH adjustment before it enters the primary plant. The wastewater then enters a distribution chamber which divides the flow to three primary clarifiers. The heavy solids are removed as sludge through a bottom drain on the tanks. This primary sludge is then pumped to the agitated sludge holding tanks where it is later blended with concentrated secondary sludge for dewatering. The sludge storage tanks are covered and ventilated to a hypochlorite countercurrent packed scrubber for odor control. The blended sludge is transferred to the two 1.5-meter belt presses for removal of the water. Dewatered sludge is conveyed on a drag chain conveyer to the incinerator for destruction. The incinerator's operation produces 65,000 lb/week of ash. The ash is sent for recovery of precious metals. The multiple-hearth incinerator consists of a secondary combustion chamber, countercurrent-flow wet scrubber, and a 45-kV wet electrostatic precipitator.

Clarified wastewater from the primary plant passes through a neutralization chamber equipped with mixing baffles where the pH is adjusted with caustic (NaOH), if needed. The effluent continues to a low lift wet well where it is pumped to either of two tricking filters or to the aeration basins. The trickling filters are 68 ft in diameter and contain a bed height of 21 ft of PVC honeycomb packing to support biological growth to treat BOD.

A unique feature—caused by a shortage of land—is the location of the trickling filters; they are over the center of two of the three 130-ft2, 2.5 million-gal aeration tanks. The trickling filters are covered with fiberglass domes. They are ventilated to the hypochlorite scrubber for odor control.

The biological secondary operation is a complete-mix activated sludge system using three parallel aeration/clarifier streams. The aeration basins and clarifiers are all 130 ft square; the aeration basins have a 20-ft depth; the clarifiers have a 12-ft sidewall. All aeration basins use jet aeration systems; these systems pump mixed liquor through an outer annulus around a compressed air nozzle to aerate and mix the activated sludge liquor. Each aeration basin has eight banks (headers) oriented 90° from each other along the basin walls. Each bank contains thirty-two aerating/mixing nozzles.

After aeration, the mixed liquor flows to the center wells of the secondary clarification basins, and the biological solids settle to the clarifier floors. Rotating sludge collectors remove the sludge from the bottom of the secondary clarifiers; the sludge is then pumped back tot the aeration basins as return activated sludge. Excess sludge is pumped to the dissolved air flotation system as waste activated sludge. The concentrated sludge is pumped to the sludge holding tanks and mixed with primary sludge before dewatering and incineration.

Complete mix aeration system for activated sludge process.

Finally, the treated and clarified effluent drops over a 12-ft waterfall to raise the dissolved oxygen level, and it next is released through a submerged outfall pipe to the Genesee River. The river, after several miles, empties into Lake Ontario.

The King's Landing treatment plant has an excellent compliance record, and the staff works with Kodak's industrial customers, regulatory agencies, and neighbors to improve the treatment of Kodak's wastewater. The plant's staff has given many tours over the years to neighbors, school groups, and professional organizations. It continues to open its doors to visitors to educate them about wastewater treatment and Kodak.
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The authors operate the King's Point Wastewater Treatment Plant. David Beecher is operations manager Craig Popen is operations team leader, Douglas Taylor is an environmental engineer, Donald Wolf is a chemical technician, and Robert Regelsberger is in plant operations. Photos by Craig Popen.