At Cliffside . . .

Million-Dollar Treatment Plant Opened By Cone

From The Forest City Courier
Jan. 25, 1973

On stream – Cone’s cliffside plant manager, Joe Mller, right turns the handle that puts the waste treatment plant “in stream”. Watching are members of the cliffside sanitary district, from left, Frank mashburn, Loy Wortman, Chairman and John Tinkler.

Waste water from Cone’s Cliffside plant enters here where it is sprayed upward from pumps, such as in foreground. Oxygen is absorbed from the air which aids in breaking down pollutants in the water.

Water above then enters settling tanks one of which is shown here. Clear water, minus pollutants is discharged through outlet at left rear, back into the Second Broad river, cleaner as tests may show, than when Cone’s Cliffside Plant drew it from the river.

Cone Mills’ Cliffside Plant Wednesday officially opened a newly-constructed million-dollar waste treatment plant.

After 18-months in construction, the plant’s automatic switch was tripped into action by Cliffside Plant Manager Joe Miller. Among those present were members of the Cliffside Sanitary District Committee Loy Wortman (chairman) Frank Mashburn, John Tinkler, and Plant Engineer John Scovill.

This is one of several waste treatment plants Cone has put into operation in North Carolina and South Carolina in a multi-million dollar program for pollution control. Cone’s Cliff-side Plant is located near the Second Broad, River, which the treated effluent enters. The Second Broad later merges with the Main Broad and continues into South Carolina.

The Cliffside waste treatment plant includes a chlorine contact chamber and sludge drying bed. The waste disposal plant with pumping station is designed to treat 1,750,000 gallons a day of industrial and domestic waste. The settling basin holds approximately six million gallons or four days’ output from the textile plant. A large aeration pond has with 13 stainless steel floating aerators. There is a lift station at the river which carries dye waste to the aeration pond.

A sub-station and control building include laboratory facilities for testing and checking dye waste.

Cone Mills is a pioneer in textile waste treatment. The company constantly works to improve waste treatment through research and im-provement of all of its pollution control equipment-at all plant locations.

Pollution control is necessary because of the very nature of the textile plants, which require use of large quantities of dyes, other chemicals, and, of course, water. Textiles could not be manufactured otherwise.

The quality of Cone’s waste treatment has improved greatly over the years, as knowledge of treatment techniques has grown. New technology is constantly being developed; research is going on continually.

Cone engineers and scientists have been working on pollution problems for many years. They have contributed many research papers to technical journals and conferences on waste treatment and pollution, sharing their knowledge for the benefit of all.

Reprinted with permission from The Daily Courier. Copyright owned by The Daily Courier.