A tannery (taxidermy work) is planning to build in our community, and our city government is mum on what processes are being used and what the environmental dangers might be, if any. Can anyone out there speak to this issue? We'd like to be sure all safeguards are in place so that the tannery is a good neighbor and we don't have problems down the road with pollutants. Any help from your experience is appreciated! Lyn.
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If you will order Rittel's tanning book most of your answers will be there.
The acid used in pickle is very nonhazardous, plus is neutralized, reducing the acid back to biodegradable base agents.
The salt is salt can be used for weed control or if they use pottasium chloride in place of salt sodium chloride can be used on yuor lawn for fertilzer.
I work for gets its waste monitored by the city, and the boss also pays for monthly monitoring. Leather Tannerys (cow hide) might be of concern if they were building one in my neighborhood, but not a Taxidermy tannery. Leather tannerys used to use a chrome tan for everything, but they are starting to move away from that due to the cost of recycling waste. Trichloretheline used to be widely used in leather tannerys, but is very rairly used anymore due to the fact that it causes lukemia in children if leaked into the water supply. Another words, dont worry. Food preservitives and additives would probablly cause more harm than a Taxidermy tannery would.
Are you a citizen responding to a public notice for a special use permit or are you a government official? I am opening a tannery in Smithfield, NC and I had to go through the same process to secure a permit to operate.
Here is what you need to ask for the government officials in your community to request the applicant to make available:
1. A chemical manifest. This document will disclose every chemical used in the tannery.
2. A listing of the MSDS sheets for every chemical used in the process. (Should accompany the manifest, but can be disclosed at Town hearings.)
3. A volume prediction for the water and sewer department to take into consideration.
4. An Industrial Use permit application should be filed in anticipation of the potential growth of the tannery.
After all this scrutiny, you will be able to determine the impact that a tannery will have on your community.
As oldshaver mentioned before, the town/community will potentially monitor the monthly discharge and make any adjustments that may be necessary.
My township moniters my discharge and so far has been satified that I have provided full disclosure. I have had the town officials personally visit for inspections and involvement along the way.
The last thing a business wants is for the community to shut down operations for non-disclosure.
As a side note, many of the chemicals used in tannery operations today are also used as flocculants in the wastewater treatment plants. Therefore, the tannery actually benefits the wastewater system.
Email me if you would like more information.
We recently opened a tannery in Sitka, AK and delt with these issues. Your main concern should be waste water discharge (heavy metals, pH, and salinity). In our situation we use a syntan that contains no heavy metals. Since we discharge into the city sewer system we are required(under our MOU with the city) to neutralize and dilute our discharge to prevent any damage to municiple sewer system from extreme pH and salinity. Also when I presented the city waste water superintendent with the MSDS sheets for the chemicals that we would be using he didn't see anything that would cause the municipal treatment plant to be in non-compliance with state or federal discharge regs.
If the tannery is discharging into a municipal sewer system then its the municipality's responsibility to see that nothing is put into that sewer system that could cause the municipal waste water discharge to fall outside the parameters set by the state and feds.
If the tannery is discharging into a public water way then the same if not stricter regs would apply to the tannery.
In short if everyone does their job you should be safe but its good to ask questions. If you would like more info. just e-mail.
i need environmental hazards associated with tanneries. thanks
re: post below.
in todays tannery;
most tanneries and city governments are better off to worry/focus on the water supply system and the backflow or backsiphonage devices. our state law states "where cross-connections exist, a fixed proper air gap or an approved backflow prevention device must be installed."
and "inspected annually by a plummer licenced by the state." [and at no small cost i might add.]
this is to prevent a break in a water line [such as happens in extreme dry or cold weather, or from a digging accident, from letting any saline fluids or acid pickels etc. back flowing into the drinking water.
neutralized discharges from rittles syntan, or salt brine etc. are not going to be an environmental problem. and indeed may actually help with the city affluent.
ej