Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Welder Gary Patton with Aqua Treat Inc. was critically injured when an explosion threw him about 50 feet from a wastewater solvent holding tank in Chattanooga, TN







Chattanooga, TN
An employee working with welding equipment on top of a tank at Aqua Treat Inc., on Moccasin Bend was injured "seriously and traumatically" in an explosion around 10 a.m. today, a Chattanooga police spokeswoman said.

Officials identified the injured man as Gary Patton, 41. He was welding a wastewater solvent holding tank when an explosion threw him about 50 feet from the tank.

Aqua Treat, located at 617 Hudson Road, is an industrial wastewater treatment facility that processes nonhazardous industrial wastewater and solids, according to the company website.

The victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment of multiple injuries, police spokeswoman Elisa Myzal said.

Aqua Treat officials said there was no danger to the public or the environment. The plant ceased operations and employees were evacuated out of the building while fire and police officials investigated the incident and removed the injured worker from the site, Myzal said.

No foul play was initially suspected but it was too early to say for sure, she said. Since the man's injuries were so severe, police responded to the incident to help with the investigation.

Officials were not immediately able to say what was inside the tank where the man was working when the explosion happened.



Aqua Treat, Inc. is an industrial wastewater pre-treatment facility, and is designed to pre-treat difficult and recalcitrant non-hazardous (non-RCRA regulated) industrial wastewater and solids.  All accepted waste has been analyzed in our fully equipped lab and been determined to be non-hazardous.  A prerequisite for acceptance includes a completed profile of the waste, signed by the generator.  The profile serves as an affidavit from the generator detailing any possible components of the waste.  This step is required by permit and is an added protection against plant contamination. 
 
Once the acceptance protocol is completed, the waste can be transported to Aqua Treat by our in-house vacuum tankers or delivered to us.  Incoming waste is finger printed upon arrival and once it is deemed acceptable it is off loaded into our treatment tanks.  In every step of our process, the regulations are meticulously followed.
 
Also, liquid waste products and solids, are brought to the facility in drums and 300-gallon plastic totes.  All treatment processes take place on secondary containment concrete pads with drainage to the primary clarifying tank.  All stormwater on treatment areas and unloading pads drain to the primary clarifying tank for treatment.








Industrial wastewater pretreatment plants are governed by federal law.  Metal limits for our discharge water are mandated by federal law, but the oversight for these federal regulations falls to local POTW’s.  Aqua Treat is regulated by the Chattanooga POTW, (Moccasin Bend), located 1 mile from the plant, and we discharge directly to the city’s plant.  Aqua Treat is required by Moccasin Bend to maintain a 24 hour flow meter sampling all of our discharge water.  Also, Moccasin Bend regularly installs their own flow meter to sample our discharge.  This scrutiny is added assurance to the customer that Aqua Treat is always in compliance.  Strict enforcement of waste regulations is insurance for generators that there will never be any chance of future liabilities.
 
When choosing a non-hazardous wastewater facility, this strict adherence to the letter of the law by our plant and by our regulatory agency has induced many large corporations to choose Aqua Treat.
Aqua Treat Site Map