Smithfield Foods has completed its $2.4 million upgrade to its wastewater treatment plant in Sioux Center, Iowa. The plant treats industrial discharge from the company’s manufacture of bacon before it goes to the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
The newly updated plant will help offset outside water treatment costs, and will also lessen the chemicals the city has to use to treat the company’s water.
A report published by Research & Markets last year suggested that organizations that generate waste are smart to consider decentralized wastewater management such as Smithfield’s wastewater treatment plant.
That’s because water scarcity, severe water stress, stringent regulations to control pollution in water bodies, and aging city infrastructures are causing utility price jumps that increasingly affect businesses in the industrial and commercial arenas. These factors are leading to the growth of decentralized packaged/containerized water and wastewater treatment globally.
As cities and municipalities charge companies more for wastewater treatment, many are considering or implementing onsite water treatment. These include the Dairy Farmers of America and Deschutes Brewery. One of the complexities of wastewater management, however, is that industrial water treatment equipment must be designed specifically for the effluent produced.
