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Wastes Chromium Content

Dear Sirs:

I would like to have information about what chromium compounds and in what concentration, are found in metal-finishing industry wastes. I need this information for a research project on the remediation of chromium contaminated sites. Any help shall be very welcome.

Thank you,

Maria Teresa de la Torre
- Sydney, NSW, Australia
2002

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2002

I have been involved in major law cases about cleanup costs from chromium wastes generated by plating shops at least twice and about all I can tell you about quantities and concentrations is that it's complicated :-)

Chromium wastes can be in trivalent form or hexavalent, they can vary from about an ounce per gallon to 54 ounces per gallon in the original process tanks--and they can obviously be diluted by small factors or by factors of thousands before they reach the ground. It is important to note that for many decades the overwhelming majority of such wastes have been fully treated and properly landfilled, so you can't imply guilt by association, i.e., that just because a plating shop operated that it discharged untreated waste.

If you will post your hypothesis or your proposed treatment method, people may be able to help you by commenting on it. But when you ask a question that implies that you need to know the approximate chromium discharge from an average hypothetical shop, you are completely defeated before you start because there is no such thing.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey