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Mercury
Work Group
Phase I Reports >> End of Pipe Report
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For more information,
contact David Eppstein by email at
deppstein@masco.harvard.edu,
or by calling 617-632-2860.
Field
Demonstration Tests & Results
Vendor Trials
At the beginning of our
investigations, the Subcommittee was hearing claims of
performance to MWRA limits and beyond being made by many
equipment suppliers. Upon closer examination, however, we began
to discover inconsistencies in the way samples were taken, where
they were taken and how they were analyzed. Obviously, with such
a potential market at stake, these claims were being made in a
manner beneficial to the Suppliers of the systems but without
much technical substance to back them up. When we requested
detailed information on sampling sites, field preservation
methods, analytical method detection limits (MDLs), individual
component removal efficiencies, sustainable flow during testing,
etc., we were not really surprised when many of the people
making these claims could no longer be located.
Certain companies,
however, did volunteer information that had been obtained via
experimentation at Member Institutions. These vendors did not
necessarily claim to "know it all" but were willing to
try to see "how low they could go" in the face of all
influent conditions, most of which were largely undocumented. A
summary of the limited analytical data made available to the
Subcommittee over the course of its investigations is presented
in the attached Table, entitled Preliminary
Vendor Treatability Testing Results.
Subcommittee
Sanctioned Testing
Beyond the information
obtained through the vendor interview process and that gathered
via the "grapevine" and, now knowing what the actual
loading of mercury from our member institutions to the MWRA
sewerage system is, the Subcommittee decided to sanction
demonstration testing of various technologies on wastestreams
generated at and by its Member Institutions. Testing was
implemented according to a written protocol prepared under
authority of the Subcommittee and implemented, in some cases, in
conjunction with the MWRA.
This section incomplete
as of June 1, 1995 since vendor negotiations are still underway.
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