This morning I had to change my schedule and find a solution to the environmental issues of a large egg classifying plant. The regulators gave them till the end of the month to produce a mitigation program, and procrastinating as we always do, it is now the last minute. Broken eggs and water produce all kind of aromatic volatiles that stink in summer. The wastewater has very high content of sulphurated proteins, and our regulators demand wastewater of the quality of destilled water. I thought a wetland treatment plant would be necessary, but the owner insists that the plant uses almost no water, ergo, there is zero discharge of wastewater, ergo no need for nothing. Ergo, J is a troublemaker, invents inexistent problems. Let see if the regulators believe the story. Life is difficult.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Eggs: The Environmental Issues
This morning I had to change my schedule and find a solution to the environmental issues of a large egg classifying plant. The regulators gave them till the end of the month to produce a mitigation program, and procrastinating as we always do, it is now the last minute. Broken eggs and water produce all kind of aromatic volatiles that stink in summer. The wastewater has very high content of sulphurated proteins, and our regulators demand wastewater of the quality of destilled water. I thought a wetland treatment plant would be necessary, but the owner insists that the plant uses almost no water, ergo, there is zero discharge of wastewater, ergo no need for nothing. Ergo, J is a troublemaker, invents inexistent problems. Let see if the regulators believe the story. Life is difficult.
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2 comments:
Aha, something that I ACTUALLY know something about since I grew up on a poultry farm and my uncle owed such a plant.
I take it that the eggs are brought to the plant already washed? So the only water used is for washing down the floors and machinery, cleaning up broken eggs, etc.? Could they change their cleanup procedure so that spills are wet vacuumed/ swept up and disposed as waste rather than washed down the drain? I'm sure it's convenient for them to just turn on the hose to wash a spill down the drain (and this way they don't have to pay for carting the waste) but it's not the only way. If they clean up the mess first and then wash only what little cannot be picked up it would make the waste water much less contaminated. That which they pick up could be refrigerated or frozen until pickup to reduce the smell.
K
Actually they run a dry factory, they pick up all the broken eggs and collect them in special basins and sell them to animal feed factories. The floor is dirty but apparently dry egg does not produce bad smells. Today was a very warm day for winter, and the egg dry up very fast. They had Ethiopian boys picking up the eggs from the floor. All of the floor drains were obturated and no sewage was flowing from the working area. There were no insects nor flies. They are planning to air condition the whole hangar so the air will be filtered. My problem is that I have produce a credible program, and estimate how much water should be used if everything was according to the books. The regulators follow American textbooks and dont care much about what goes on in reality. They believe more to the EPA than to their own lying eyes and noses.
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