Development of a polishing system for FEMP wastewater discharges

The Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP) in Fernald, Ohio generates a wide variety of wastewaters, ranging from process water to stormwater runoff. The current practice is to treat water from process areas prior to discharge into the Great Miami River. Stormwater, on the other hand, is discharged with only settling prior to release. The discharge to the river can contain up to 1-2 parts per million (ppm) of uranium. A treatment process to remove contaminants from the discharge water has been developed. Process development included a series of laboratory evaluations to determine the most effective treatment technologies, followed by a series of on-site pilot-plant tests to further define the treatment system and provide the data required for scale-up to a full-scale treatment system