DISPOSAL OF WASTE WATER

Treated Effluent Disposal

The proper disposal of treatment plant effluent or reuse requirements is an essential

part of planning and designing wastewater treatment facilities. Different methods
of ultimate disposal of secondary effluents are discussed as follows.

Natural Evaporation

The process involves large impoundments with no discharge. Depending on the

climatic conditions large impoundments may be necessary if precipitation exceeds
evaporation. Therefore, considerations must be given to net evaporation, storage
requirements, and possible percolation and groundwater pollution. This method is
particularly beneficial where recovery of residues is desirable such as for disposal
of brines.

Groundwater Recharge

Methods for groundwater recharge include rapid infiltration by effluent application

or impoundment, intermittent percolation, and direct injection. In all cases risks for
groundwater pollution exists. Furthermore, direct injection implies high costs of
treating effluent and injection facilities.

Irrigation

Irrigation has been practiced primarily as a substitute for scarce natural waters or
sparse rainfall in arid areas. In most cases food chain crops (i.e. crops consumed by
humans and those animals whose products are consumed by humans) may not be
irrigated by effluent. However, field crops such as cotton, sugar beets, and crops
for seed production are grown with wastewater effluent.

Wastewater effluent has been used for watering parks, golf courses and highway
medians.

Recreational Lakes

The effluent from the secondary treatment facility is stored in a lagoon for
approximately 30 days. The effluent from the lagoon is chlorinated and then
percolated through an area of sand and gravel, through which it travels for
approximately 0.5 km and is collected in an interceptor trench. It is discharged into
a series of lakes used for swimming, boating and fishing.

Aquaculture

Aquaculture, or the production of aquatic organisms (both flora and fauna), has
been practiced for centuries primarily for production of food, fiber and fertilizer.
Lagoons are used for aquaculture, although artificial and natural wetlands are also
being considered. However, the uncontrolled spread of water hyacinths is itself a
great concern because the flora can clog waterways and ruin water bodies.

Municipal Uses

Technology is now available to treat wastewater to the extent that it will meet
drinking water quality standards. However, direct reuse of treated wastewater is
practicable only on an emergency basis. Many natural bodies of water that are used
for municipal water supply are also used for effluent disposal which is done to
supplement the natural water resources by reusing the effluent many times before it
finally flows to the sea.

Industrial Uses

Effluent has been successfully used as a cooling water or boiler feed water.
Deciding factors for effluent reuse by the industry include (1) availability of
natural water, (2) quality and quantity of effluent, and cost of processing, (3)
pumping and transport cost of effluent, and (4) industrial process water that does
not involve public health considerations.

Discharge into Natural Waters

Discharge into natural waters is the most common disposal practice. The self-
purification or assimilative capacity of natural waters is thus utilized to provide the
remaining treatment.
BIODEGRADATION AND BIOLOGICAL GROWTH

Successful biological treatment depends on the development and maintenance of

an appropriate, active, mixed microbial population in the system. This microbial
population may be present as either a fixed film attached to some form of support
medium, as in the trickling filter and rotating biological filter processes, or a
suspended growth, as in activated sludge processes and anaerobic digestion.
Organic waste matter is used as a food source by the microbial population in each
of these treatment systems. In their life processes, these microorganisms use some
of the organic matter in order to synthesize new cell material, and they obtain the
energy from their synthesis and cell maintenance functions by degrading some of
the organic matter to simple compounds. Thus, biological growth involves both
cell synthesis and biodegradation processes.

Heterotrophic organisms, which require a complex source of organic carbon for

growth, while autotrophic organisms are able to synthesize their organic
requirements from inorganic carbon sources such as CO2.

Heterotrophic organisms obtain the energy necessary for growth and maintenance
functions by breaking down some of the organic food supply. Autotrophic
organisms are able to obtain their energy requirements either by oxidizing
inorganic ions, in which case they are chemosynthetic, or by utilizing sunlight, the
photosynthetic organisms. Aerobic heterotrophic bacteria are organisms
responsible for the primary breakdown of organic matter in wastewater treatment.
Autotrophic organisms of importance in special cases include the bacteria
responsible for nitrification, and algae (and cyanobacteria), which fulfil an
important role in contributing oxygen in oxidation ponds.
Anaerobic and facultative heterotrophic bacteria are important in the stabilization
of the concentrated organic sludges produced in wastewater treatment and also in
the treatment of concentrated organic industrial wastes.

Environmental factors which influence biological growth include temperature, pH,

mixing intensity and the presence of toxic agents. Temperature may affect the
reaction rate of microorganisms to the extent of doubling for each 10C increase.
Different organisms predominate at different temperature ranges, however, so that
there is little difficulty in developing a suitable microorganism population in all but
the coldest climatic conditions. For optimal biological growth the pH should
generally be in the range of 6.5 to 7.5, although growth will occur over the range of
pH 4.0 to 9.5. Materials should not be present in toxic concentrations, although it
is often possible to develop a microbial population which is acclimatized to quite
high concentrations of some toxic materials. Mixing is important, especially in
suspended growth systems, to ensure effective contact between the active
microorganisms and the organic matter, to prevent accumulation of products of
microbial decomposition, and to preserve a uniform environment throughout the
volume of the reactor.

Any deficiency in nutrient or environmental factors will inhibit biological growth,

and will lead to loss of process efficiency. In any case, process efficiency can be
maximized by keeping all conditions of operation as constant as possible.

The biological growth curve

The growth of a batch culture of microorganisms utilizing a single growth-limiting
nutrient (substrate), such as organic carbon, is illustrated in Figure 5.1, where it is
assumed that all other nutrient and environmental requirements as discussed above
are satisfied.
Initially, when the food supply is present in excess, the organisms grow at a rate
controlled by their inherent metabolic rate, and organism numbers increase
logarithmically. This phase is followed by a declining growth phase during which
shortage of available food begins to limit the rate of organism growth until at some
point, approaching exhaustion of the food supply, the mass of organisms present
reaches a maximum. Thereafter, as cells die and are used as a food source by
those, which remain, the total cell mass declines, in the process of endogenous
respiration.

Figure 5.1 The batch biological growth curve showing typical operating points

One implication of the growth curve in Figure 5.1 is that, in the declining growth
phase, the rate of organism growth at any time is a function of the food
concentration. Practical biological wastewater treatment processes are continuous
rather than batch operations, however, they may be represented, on average, as a
single point on the batch growth curve. Each of these operating points is evidently
characterized by a particular value of both microorganism concentration and food
concentration, known as the food-to-microorganism ratio-F/M.