About fifteen years ago, I worked for an environmental lab.......we did a lot of contract work for the EPA and other states "epas".
The county wastewater plant was receiving doses of some kind of solvent that was disturbing the plant.
The powers that be....suspected a precious metal vendor here in town. This was a large concrete building with very high security.
I clandestinely installed a self contained flow weight sampler for 3 days into the building's outfall.
Flow rate sampling is quite a chore. A sealed weir plate....air pump bubbler....sampler pump and strip chart recorder. All in manhole.
Anyhow........the solvent was not coming from there(it was coming from a truck frame manufacture)........but you would not believe the high precious metals we were getting from there.
When all this was over......I went back to the metals vendor and showed him what he was washing away.
Of course he was in shock.....and bought a 100 K $ paper filter machine. All production liquids were passed thru this paper. The paper was dried...then burned...then sent to smelter. Paid for his paper filter within months.
And paid me every six months to check his outfall.
The county wastewater plant was receiving doses of some kind of solvent that was disturbing the plant.
The powers that be....suspected a precious metal vendor here in town. This was a large concrete building with very high security.
I clandestinely installed a self contained flow weight sampler for 3 days into the building's outfall.
Flow rate sampling is quite a chore. A sealed weir plate....air pump bubbler....sampler pump and strip chart recorder. All in manhole.
Anyhow........the solvent was not coming from there(it was coming from a truck frame manufacture)........but you would not believe the high precious metals we were getting from there.
When all this was over......I went back to the metals vendor and showed him what he was washing away.
Of course he was in shock.....and bought a 100 K $ paper filter machine. All production liquids were passed thru this paper. The paper was dried...then burned...then sent to smelter. Paid for his paper filter within months.
And paid me every six months to check his outfall.