Ship-board system for decontaminating wastewater contaminated by firefighting operations

An apparatus for decontaminating bilge water contaminated with a foaming fire suppressant composition in the bilge of a ship that has recently experienced an on-board fire, comprising an inlet into which the contaminated water flows;

• an outlet from which decontaminated water is discharged;
• and a plurality of water processing modules, each having an independent support structure for holding at least one associated water processing device in a position suitable for transport to and operation at the site of the reservoir holding the contaminated water, said at least one associated water processing device of each of said plurality of modules being selectively and removably hydraulically connectable to another of said at least one associated water processing device of another of said plurality of modules to define a continuous flow path extending from said inlet, through said apparatus to said outlet, each of said at least one associated water processing devices having an associated decontamination function for at least partially removing a contaminant from a flow of the contaminated water passed sequentially through said plurality of modules along said flow path, a first of said at least one associated water processing devices including a sieve against which the flow is directed to induce foaming of the foaming agent, a second of said associated water processing devices including a holding tank, said sieve being positioned on an inlet side of said holding tank such that contaminated water flowing into said holding tank encounters said sieve before entering said holding tank, causing the foaming agent to foam and allowing the foam to be physically removed from the surface of said sieve, a third and a fourth of said associated water processing devices include a strainer for removing solid objects from the contaminated water and an oil/water separator, respectively, a fifth of said associated water processing devices include a bag filter for removing small particulates and hydrocarbons, a sixth of said associated water processing devices includes a carbon tank containing activated carbon for the adsorption of volatile organic compounds, a seventh of said associated water processing devices includes a resin tank containing anionic resin for removing metal contaminants from the contaminated water, wherein said strainer and said oil/water separator are supported on a first module, said holding tank with sieve are supported on a second module, said bag filter is supported on a third module, said carbon tank is supported on a fourth module, said resin tank is supported on a fifth module and said flow path proceeds from the first module to the second module to the third module to the fourth module to the fifth module.