Issues: Natural Resource Management, Environmental Releases
Stakeholders: Communities
Region: Asia (Korea)
As a means of preserving underground water, the Yeongju Plant has been operating a recyclable wastewater treatment centre since January 2003.
The major objectives of the centre are:
- to improve the environment by recycling wastewater
- to protect natural resources
- to facilitate the processing of generated wastewater by reducing the capacity load of the wastewater-processing centres currently in operation
The average amount of underground water used at Yeongju was 1,516 tonnes per day in 2002. With the new recyclable wastewater treatment centre, the average amount of underground water used has been reduced to 1,285 tonnes per day in 2003, which is a reduction of approximately 15%. Furthermore, the amount of wastewater generated in 2003 was 416 tonnes per day, which is a 35% decline from 635 tonnes per day in 2002. The goal for 2004 is to further reduce, on a per unit basis, the plant's use of underground water by replacing it with recycled wastewater.
With a capacity of 1,000m³ per day, the wastewater treatment centre currently processes approximately 400m³ per day of wastewater generated from the Remelt and Utility units, which is then used once again as the absorbent in the air pollution prevention facilities of the Remelt process. The installation is capable of processing the total volume of wastewater generated at the Yeongju plant.
