Experimental Studies of Odor Control at Whiting, Indiana

Abstract

Editor's Note : The quality of the water along the Indiana shoreline at the southern end of Lake Michigan has been the subject of many studies. When engineers were first employed by the Indiana State Board of Health about 1905, one of the earliest studies made related to the extent of pollution of the southern end of Lake Michigan. The Indiana shoreline from Gary west to the border of Illinois is lined with huge industrial plants which draw large quantities of water from the lake for process operations and which return much, if not all, of this water to the lake without treatment. Whiting, Ind., is the site of large oil refinery operations and the industrial pollution of the water in the lake at Whiting is of greater intensity than at any other point. It is also necessary to understand that at the southernmost end of Lake Michigan there is no flow of water along a generally definite course, such as is found at Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland and Toronto. Diversion of treated municipal sewage through purification plants into the Calumet River and thence down the Chicago Drainage Canal serves to lessen the lake pollution. But there still remains some flow of untreated municipal sewage into the lake and there is still a very substantial load of industrial waste in the lake water at points along the Indiana shore. The account which follows is a competent and professional record of special investigations made by the authors in 1947 in an effort to provide Whiting citizens with a public water supply which would meet generally accepted criteria of taste and odor intensity. No question of conformance to bacteriological requirements was involved. Although the authors' recommendation that ozonation be discontinued was followed for a time, ozone is presently being used in the treatment of the Whiting water supply. It is understood that the municipal sewage load from Whiting upon its own raw water is being reduced through the installation of treatment and diversion works. The oil refineries are reported to be making efforts to reduce their contribution to the pollution of the lake.