To help quantify typical concentrations of pollutants in the wastewater from hospital facilities, the Wastewater Characterization (WWC) Subgroup was established under the Phase II MWRA/MASCO Mercury Work Group. The WWC Subgroup obtained wastewater samples from various facilities, submitted the samples for analytical testing, and determined wastewater compositions. The results were intended to help similar facilities understand the composition of their wastewater discharges and to provide pertinent information to the Technology Identification Subgroup.

The WWC Subgroup devised and carried out a rigorous program of sampling of the wastewater from five types of facilities during the Summer of 1996. The types of facilities sampled were: clinical laboratories, medical waste incinerators having wet scrubbers, hospital laundries, steam/power generators, and medical research laboratories.

Three hospitals and one steam producer volunteered to be sampling sites for these five facility types. One hospital agreed to furnish samples of both clinical laboratory and laundry wastewater. Another hospital offered a sampling site for scrubber blowdown from their medical waste incinerator. For the category of medical research laboratories, a large hospital offered six different sampling sites each serving many individual laboratories. For the dual-fueled steam/power generation facility, sampling was done when fuel oil (known to contain mercury) was being burned.

To produce concentration averages, the WWC Subgroup attempted to generate three complete sets of analytical data at each sampling site. Composite samples were collected using automatic compositors at each sampling site over three successive days at all sites, except the power facility, which was sampled for two days. Grab samples were also collected for the parameters requiring grab sampling. All sampling sites were upstream of any existing pH control or other treatment systems.

The sampling work was done by MWRA Sampling Associates, and analytical test work was performed by the MWRA Central Laboratory.

The WWC Subgroup chose the following analytical parameters for the characterization effort:

For composite samples:

Alkalinity, Ammonia Nitrogen, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD₅), Boron (Total and Dissolved), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Formaldehyde, Molybdenum (Total and Dissolved), Orthophosphate, Phosphorous (total), Priority Pollutant Metals* (Total and Dissolved), Surfactant (MBAS), Sulfates, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), and Total Suspended Solids (TSS),

* Antimony, Arsenic, Beryllium, Cadmium, Chromium, Copper, Lead, Mercury, Nickel, Selenium, Silver, Thallium, and Zinc.

For grab samples:

Cyanide, Chlorine (free), Hexavalent Chromium, Oil and Grease, pH, Petroleum Hydrocarbons, Sulfide, Temperature, and Volatile Organics (via EPA Method 624).

Because the Bench-scale Feasibility Testing Project of the Technology Identification Subgroup focused on clinical laboratory wastewater, the following tables present analytical test results for only the clinical laboratory wastewater samples. The sampling location for the clinical laboratory site is identified as 9001. For ease of review, the tables show results only for parameters that were analytically detected. For reference, however, the names of all tested parameters are listed.

The same list of tested parameters applies to all sampling locations of the WWC Study. The WWC Study sampling locations are identified as follows:

WWC data for these wastewater streams can be obtained from the MWRA on request.¹

Wastewater Characterization Data

¹ MWRA, Toxic Reduction & Control Department, Technical Services Section, 100 First Avenue, Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, MA 02129, (617) 242-6000 x 4900.

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