Technical Bulletin No. 0055: Factors Affecting the Lagooning of White Water

The reduction of suspended solids in news and chipboard mill effluents to a high degree does not generally produce a correspondingly high reduction in BOD. This is due to the presence of a considerable quantity of dissolved organic matter which will not settle out or precipitate on coagulation with alum or similar chemicals. The Council's Rutgers University project, under the direction of Dr. Willem Rudolfs, has investigated various methods of reducing the BOD of such waste. Among these was aerobic biological oxidation with which this report deals. As the oxidation lagoon has proven a relatively inexpensive means for applying this process, the factors affecting the purification rate on storage were investigated. A considerable amount of basic information regarding the response of this waste to biological oxidation in general was obtained.