Challenge

A large east coast utility contacted Siemens Water Technologies for assistance in treating cyanide contamination in their groundwater.  The contamination occured as a result of production by a former manufactured gas plant (MGP) which previously resides at the location.  Residual contamination at the site contained many organic compounds and heavy metal cyanide complexes that exceeded discharge requirements to an adjacent river.

Solution

The Siemens’ solution included a 150 gpm treatment system featuring oil/water separation, carbon filtration and wastewater ion exchange (WWIX) service to remove the contamination and to comply with discharge standards. 

Wastewater ion exchange is a service based option which utilizes ion exchange resins and other medias selected to remove specific ionic contaminants from groundwater, industrial wastewater and process water for recycle. DOT approved vessels containing the selected resin or media treat the water until the capacity is reached. Once exhausted, the vessels are removed and replaced with fresh DOT-compliant vessels and returned to service. Exhausted vessels are returned to our processing facility where the contaminants are removed from the resin.

Results

Siemens provided a fast, reliable WWIX treatment system that offers the customer flexibility to expand, or in this case, reduce treatment capacity, as the customer's needs change. A service-based solution, such as WWIX, also helps customers minimize capital spending and maximize their onsite manpower to stay focused on their core business while Siemens handles the water treatment.

As part of our WWIX service, Siemens provided safe removal and transportation of the spent carbon to our company-owned reactivation facilty and the spent resin to our central treatment and recycling facility.  Treatment of spent carbons and resins at our facilities provides customers with peace of mind that there is no potential for recontamination and no on-site storage of chemicals, which makes for a safer work environment. 

In addition to being a "green solution", carbon reactivation ends the "chain of custody" and future potential liabilities often associated with traditional landfill disposal of spent carbons.  And, hazardous/non-hazardous wastewater and spent resins sent to our central treatment facility are treated to produce zero hazardous waste by extracting all reusable chemicals and metallic commodities to eliminate pollutants from entering the environment and avoiding disposal costs and liability.

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