Technical Bulletin No. 0124: Pulp and Papermill Waste Disposal by Irrigation and Land Application

At the time this Technical Bulletin was first issued in 1959, a surprising amount of work had been done on the use of land disposal, including irrigation, for the disposal of pulp and paper mill effluents, although broad interest in these techniques was comparatively recent. The attached Council Technical Bulletin contains a summation and evaluation of such practices as applied or under test at fourteen mills in this country at that time, as well as a review of basic requirements established through experience with such disposal of sanitary sewage and other industrial wastes. Included also was a bibliography and critical review of related literature. The areas covered included seepage beds, soil seepage, and spray and trench irrigation. All these procedures share a common principle: namely, the use of the soil as a treatment system to accomplish either total exclusion of effluent from receiving waters, or the removal of oxygen consuming substances by soil filtration and microbial decomposition prior to entry into receiving waters. The increasing industry interest as well as the geographical suitability of many mill locations for land disposal led the Council to consider this a major area of future research and investigation at Oregon State University. Employing the basic information contained in this Technical Bulletin as a background for planning, the project undertook a systematic laboratory investigation, resulting in National Council Technical Bulletins No. 150, 164, 176, and 185.