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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 3, 1996
96-149
CONTACT:
Mary Getchell, Ecology (360) 407-6157
Matt Wight, Chinet (509) 663-8537 Pager (360) 534-8590
Chinet's Business Decision Is A Win For The Environment
Yakima, WA -- A new manufacturing process means good news for the environment. Recently the Chinet Company in Wenatchee changed its manufacturing process to eliminate its process wastewater discharge.
"Having less pollutant containing wastewater being discharged into the Columbia River is very good news for the environment. The decision to go to a zero process water discharge was a challenge involving a significant financial investment by the company, three years of work and considerable collaboration with our office," said Bob Barwin, the Department of Ecology's Water Quality Program section manager in the Central Regional Office.
For many years, Chinet has been making fruit packaging trays from recycled newspapers. Its processes involved withdrawing water from the Columbia River, using it in the manufacturing of fruit trays, biologically treating the wastewater in an aerated lagoon and returning it to the river.
Four years ago Chinet was planning to replace some outdated machinery. At the same time Ecology was requiring the company to substantially reduce two parameters for pollution in its discharge. Ecology was upgrading the company's permit requirements to improve water quality in the segment of the Columbia River where Chinet discharged.
"We looked at two approaches to reduce the pollutants in our discharge--upgrading our treatment facilities or eliminating the process water discharge," said Matt Wight, Process/Quality Manager with Chinet. "We decided to go for 'zero discharge' of process water, rather than upgrading our treatment facilities because we wanted to eliminate the problem at its source instead of treating it afterwards."
In the past, Chinet had its cooling water and process water combined. To achieve "zero discharge," Chinet first separated the non-process water the company used for cooling and vacuum seal water from the wastewater used in the manufacturing process. The next step involved developing methods to reuse water of various levels of quality and recycle it back through the manufacturing process.
As with all new developments the process change involved solving numerous problems while people worked on the project. Chinet engineers and consultants persisted and succeeded in closing the loop to achieve continuous recycling of process water, thereby significantly reducing its pollutant discharge to the Columbia River.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
