Water Pollution Impact &

Wastewater Treatment Process

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Water Pollution Impact

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Water Pollution Impact
 Water pollution can be defined as "the presence of a
substance in the environment that because of its
chemical composition or quantity prevents the
functioning of natural processes and produces
undesirable environmental and (human)
healtheffects.“

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Water Pollution Impact (cont’d)
 Possible impacts of water pollution:
1. Heavy metals from industrial processes can
accumulate in nearby lakes and rivers. These are toxic
to marine life such as fish and shellfish, and can affect
the rest of the food chain. This means that entire
animal communities can be badly affected by this type
of pollutant.
2. Industrial waste often contains many toxic compounds
that damage the health of aquatic animals and those
who eat them. Some toxins affect the reproductive
success of marine life and can therefore disrupt the
community structure of an aquatic environment.
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Water Pollution Impact (cont’d)
3. Microbial pollutants from sewage often result in
infectious diseases that infect aquatic life and
terrestrial life through drinking water. This often
increases the number of mortalities seen within an
environment.
4. Organic matter and nutrients causes an increase in
aerobic algae and depletes oxygen from the water
column. This is called eutrophication and causes the
suffocation of fish and other aquatic organisms.

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Water Pollution Impact (cont’d)
5. Sulfate particles from acid rain change the pH of water
making it more acidic, this damages the health of
marine life in the rivers and lakes it contaminates, and
often increases the number of mortalities within an
environment..
6. Suspended particles can often reduce the amount of
sunlight penetrating the water, disrupting the growth
of photosynthetic plants and micro-organisms. This
has subsequent effects on the rest of the aquatic
community that depend on these organisms to survive.

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Wastewater Treatment

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Wastewater Treatment
 Wastewater comprises liquid waste discharged by
domestic residences, commercial properties, industry,
and/or agriculture and can encompass a wide range of
potential contaminants.

sewagetreatment.us
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 In general treatment schemes are often identified as
 Preliminary treatment,
 Primary treatment,
 Secondary treatment and
 Advanced treatment
(tertiary).

Typical Wastewater Treatment Processes

www.ci.stcloud.mn.us 9
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Wastewater Treatment (cont’d)
1. Preliminary treatment
 Preliminary systems include measurement and
regulation of the incoming flow and removal of large
floating solids, grit and perhaps grease.

 Influent passes through it before processed by primary

or secondary treatment units;

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1. Preliminary treatment (cont’d)
 The removal of wastewater constituents, such as rags,
paper, tree limbs, that may cause maintenance or
operational problems with the treatment operations.
 Examples are screening and comminution , grit
removal for the elimination of coarse suspended
matter.
 Comminutors are used to macerate solid (rags, paper,
plastic) by revolving cutting bars.

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1. Preliminary treatment (cont’d)
 Grit, which is composed primarily of sand and gravel,
enters the wastewater collection system due to cracks
in pipes, improper or poorly fitting pipe joints, poor
fitting or missing manhole covers and stormwater
runoff from streets and parking lots.

 Grit removal may be accomplished in grit chambers or

by the centrifugal separation of sludge. Grit chambers
are designed to remove grit that have specific gravities
(S.G. = 2.7) substantially greater that those of the
organic solids in wastewater (S.G. = 1.3)
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1. Preliminary treatment (cont’d)
 Grit chambers are provided to
1. protect moving mechanical equipment from
abrasion and accompanying abnormal wear;
2. reduce formation of heavy deposits in pipelines,
channels and conduits;
3. reduce the frequency of digester cleaning caused
by excessive accumulations of grit.

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Wastewater Treatment (cont’d)
2. Primary treatment
 a portion of the suspended solids and organic matters ,
such as old and grease, are removed from the
wastewater by a clarifier or settling tank.
 This removal is usually by physical operations such as
sedimentation.
 The effluent from primary treatment will ordinarily
contain considerable organic matter and will have a
relatively high BOD.
 The solids that collect at the bottom of the tank are
called primary sludge and are pumped from the tank
for treatment elsewhere in the plant.
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Wastewater Treatment (cont’d)
2. Primary treatment (cont’d)
 originally designed to remove suspended solids in
wastewater prior to its discharge.
 It usually involves a simple sedimentation process and
chemicals are added to assist in removal of finely
divided or colloidal solids.

Example of Primary Treatment

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http://techalive.mtu.edu/meec/module21/CSOs.htm
Wastewater Treatment (cont’d)
3. Secondary treatment
 Complies biological process for the removal of
biodegradable organics and suspended solids.
 Conventional secondary treatment includes biological
treatment by activated sludge or trickling filter.
 Disinfection process will include frequently after the
secondary treatment if the effluent without further
treatment.

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 Secondary Treatment
 Secondary treatment systems are intended to remove
the soluble and colloidal organic matter which remains
after primary treatment.
 The secondary treatment is usually referred as
biological process.
 Biological treatment consists of application of a
controlled natural process in which micro-organisms
remove soluble and colloidal organic material from the
waste.
 The basic equation of the processes is
BOD (food
or substrate) Binary
fission

Primary Secondary Secondary

Clarifier Treatment System
Biomass Biomass
Clarifier
(Microbes) (Microbes)
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Commonly used biological treatment
processes are
 Activated Sludge Process
 Trickling Filters

Carriers

Trickling Filter

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Activated Sludge Process
The activated sludge process derives its name from the
biological mass formed when air is continuously
injected into the wastewater.
Under such conditions, micro-organisms are mixed
thoroughly with the organics under conditions that
stimulate their growth through use of the organics as
food.
As the micro-organisms grow and are mixed by the
agitation of the air, the individual organisms clump
together (flocculate) to form an active mass of
microbes called activated sludge.
In practice, wastewater flows continuously into an
aeration tank where air is injected to mix the activated
sludge with the wastewater and to supply the oxygen
needed for the organisms to break down the organics.
The mixture of activated sludge and wastewater in the
aeration tank is called mixed liquor.
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 The mixed liquors flows from the aeration tank to a
secondary clarifier where the activated sludge is settled
out. Most of the settled sludge is returned to the aeration
tank to maintain a high population of microbes to permit
rapid breakdown of organics.

 The activated sludge process is controlled by wasting a

portion of the micro-organisms each day in order to
maintain the proper amount of bacteria to efficiently
degrade the BOD5.

 If too much sludge is wasted, the concentration of

bacteria in the mixed liquor will become too low for
effective treatment.

 If too little sludge is wasted, a large concentration of

bacteria will accumulate and, ultimately, overflow the
secondary tank and flow into the receiving tank.

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Trickling Filters
 The trickling filter consists of a bed of a highly
permeable medium to which micro-organisms are
attached and through which wastewater is percolated
or trickled.
 The filter media usually consist of either rock or a
variety of plastic packing materials.

Carriers

Trickling Filter

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 Organisms attached to the media in the upper
layer of a bed grow rapidly, feeding on the
abundant food supply.
 As the wastewater trickles downward, the organic
content decreases to the point where micro-
organisms in the lower zone are in a state of
starvation.
 The majority of BOD is extracted in the upper part
of the filter.
 Excess microbial growth sloughing off of the
media is removed from the filter effluent by a final
clarifier.
 Purging of a bed is necessary to maintain voids for
passage of wastewater and air.
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 microbial Liquid
film

Organics
DO Air
End
products

Movement of
wastewater
Anaerobic Aerobic

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 Primary Aerated activated Secondary Treated
Influent clarifier sludge tank clarifier effluent
Preliminary
treatment

Return sludge

Secondary
sludge

Activated sludge process

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Wastewater Treatment (cont’d)
Advanced wastewater treatment
 Treatment required beyond conventional
secondary treatment to remove constituents of
concern including nutrients, toxic compounds and
increased amounts of organic material and
suspended solids.
 Processes frequently employed are chemical
coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation
followed by filtration and activated carbon.
 Less used processes include ion exchange and
reverse osmosis for specific ion removal.
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Sludge Treatment and Disposal
 Sludge treatment and disposal divides into several
operations: thickening, stabilising, heating ,
dewatering and drying and ultimately disposing of
them.
 Most small wastewater plants use landfilling to dispose
of sludge because land is more readily available and
land prices are lower in rural area.

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Typical Wastewater Treatment
system Coarse
screen Coarse solids

Comminutor
Liquid from thickening
and dewatering facilities
Grit removal Grit
Digester
gas

Primary Sludge Anaerobic

sedimentation digestion

thickened
Plug flow sludge
activated Sludge
sludge dewatering
process
Sludge
thickening Dewatered
Secondary sludge
sedimentation

Recycled settled
Cl 2 activated sludge
solids
Chlorine
contact
basin

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Effluent
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The End

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