Dissolved Air Flotation for White
Water Recovery
RALPH  I.   BERMAN  AND JOSEPH  OSTERMAN
Midwest Manager and Project Engineer
Engineering Division
Bulkley, Dunton Processes, Inc.
New York, New York
As early as the year 1898, there appeared in the literature, reports
on the treatment of paper mill white water by Massachusetts mills (1).
Similar reports are to be found in the literature of a few years later
on the treatment of industrial wastes from tanneries and textile mills.
For the most part, these early reports were academic in nature and
limited themselves to experimental findings (2). From 1920 on, however, there are sufficient references to the treatment of paper mill white
waters to justify the conclusion that the treatment of these wastes was
an accepted practice.
What were the reasons that led paper mills to be among the industries with an early interest in the treatment of their industrial wastes?
First of all, it was evident to both the operators of the mills and to
the citizens of the states in which they operated that a stream pollution
problem of no small magnitude existed. The pollution load created by
industry in general was being felt and paper mills were assuredly contributing their share. State Boards of Health and Stream Control Commissions were among the early proponents of white water clarification
systems to be operated by the mills. A survey of paper mill industrial
wastes made by the Wisconsin Department of Health (3) as early
as 1932 showed that the average white water per ton of production
was 24,400 gallons. The same survey revealed that the average fiber
loading as a percentage of production was 2.3 percent. Similar surveys
in the 1930's were made by other states on paper mill effluents. Such
surveys, if made today, would be considered commonplace, but in their
day they were quite a radical departure.
The location of paper mills in itself was the cause of early interest
in this type of industrial waste. Had it not been for the fact that
paper mills were located in states that listed recreational facilities among
their leading industries, it is probable that special attention to the
problem of paper mill effluents would have been delayed.   In order to
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