PEWE Rumiano Cheese Case Study

The new lactose crystallization facility at Rumiano Cheese, Crescent City CA necessitated both more area to put it and an improved wastewater treatment system to handle the resulting increased discharge flow. Space was very tight on the one city block the plant occupies. First Rumiano purchased the last remaining non-company owned lot, cleared the existing apartment building and then started fresh.

The wastewater treatment system improvement goal was to simply add new equalization (EQ) and moving bed bioreactor (MBBR) capacity. The trick was converting an under performing tank into an MBBR. Note the tank itself was not designed for that type of application. A simple task it was not. Others said it was not even possible and turned down the project.

PEWE used innovative engineering and its’ state of the art ASO Bio-Carrier MBBR media equipment to overcome the treatment challenge. PEWE custom manufactured the internal piping, sieves and aeration grid which were the heart of the system.