Case Study
Identification and Mitigation of Elevated Molybdenum Loadings
Client: Lehigh County Authority
Project: Identification and Mitigation of Elevated Molybdenum Loadings
Project Type: Additional Services
Industry: Utilities
Location: Allentown, Pennsylvania
Problem
Lehigh County Authority experiences a sudden and dramatic increase in molybdenum in two sequential treatment plants, jeopardizing the beneficial use of residuals produced by each treatment facility.
Approach
Material Matters worked with LCA to implement strategies for the identification, recovery, and mitigation of molybdenum loading at their pretreatment facility, City of Allentown WWTP, and its biosolids farm storage.
Outcomes and Benefits
The Mo loading was traced to a hauled-in waste vendor and then back to a metals processing facility. Data mining and fitting the data to expected response curves helped identify the loading over time as it moved through both plants, which was used to project the additional time needed to landfill the dewatered biosolids. Cleanup and management strategies along with new SOPs were developed to limit cleanup costs, meet all environmental requirements, and satisfy PADEP that upgraded data collection and management, hauled-in waste program oversight, and communication protocols are all in place to prevent an incident of this scope from occurring again.