Mexican Project Combines Industrial And Municipal Wastewater Treatment

Salamanca, Mexico, a city of 500,000 people 130 miles northwest of Mexico City, faced a major wastewater dilemma. The city had to have a new municipal treatment facility to assure water safety and to manage its environmental responsibilities. The biggest industrial asset of the city is an oil refinery, which is also a source of large volumes of wastewater each year.

Normally, each entity would have had to find its own wastewater plant, at considerable expense. But through cooperation and careful planning, the city and the oil refinery found the needed solution by combing resources in one plant. The result is an example of how industry and government can work together to handle effluent costs-effectively. The installation was completed by some problem-solving technology and the staff of Columbian Steel Tank Company, a U.S. manufacturer of storage tanks for liquids and dry bulk matter.