
What are the main objectives of primary treatment of wastewater?
The main objectives of primary treatment of wastewater are: To reduce the strength of sewage to the extent 30% to 50%. To remove settleable solids by 80% to 90%.
Why is wastewater treatment important for the environment?
Wastewater is full of contaminants including bacteria, chemicals, and other toxins and nutrients. The wastewater treatment process is one of the most important environmental conservation processes and has been encouraged worldwide.
What is the difference between primary and secondary treatment of wastewater?
While primary treatment removes a significant amount of harmful substances from wastewater, it is not enough to ensure that all harmful pollutants have been removed. Secondary treatment of wastewater uses bacteria to digest the remaining pollutants. This is accomplished by forcefully mixing the wastewater with bacteria and oxygen.
How is wastewater treated in a wastewater treatment plant?
In this treatment plant, wastewater first undergoes primary and secondary treatment. For the tertiary treatment, the BNR process occurs in the bioreactors. The BNR process uses bacteria in different conditions in several tanks, to digest the contaminants in the water.

How to reduce pressure on septic system?
Following some water conservation practices can greatly reduce pressure on your septic system. For more information about conserving water, see the fact sheet about Water Consumption. Here are a few things that you can do to care for your septic system: 1 Do not use your drain or toilet as a garbage disposal; avoid putting dental floss, diapers, coffee grounds and paper towel down the drain, as they can clog up your septic system. 2 Spread your loads of laundry out over the week. When too much water is added to the septic tank, it does not have time to treat wastes, and you could be flooding your drainfield with wastewater. 3 Plant grass on your drainfield, but keep trees and shrubs away from it, because roots can clog the system and cause damage. 4 Do not drive on your drainfield, because this can compact the soil and damage the septic system components.
Why is oxygen important in wastewater treatment?
The oxygen helps the bacteria to digest the pollutants faster. The water is then taken to settling tanks where the sludge again settles, leaving the water 90 to 95 percent free of pollutants. The picture below shows the settling tanks in the Winnipeg Wastewater Treatment Plant.
What is the process of removing pollutants from water?
Another natural method is called rapid infiltration, which is a process where a basin is filled with wastewater, which has already gone through a pre-treatment. The ground acts as a filter and removes the pollutants from the water. This method is similar to what happens in a septic system.
What is tertiary wastewater treatment?
Tertiary (or advanced) treatment removes dissolved substances, such as colour, metals, organic chemicals and nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen.
What are the different levels of wastewater treatment?
There are several levels of wastewater treatment; these are primary, secondary and tertiary levels of treatment. Most municipal wastewater treatment facilities use primary and secondary levels of treatment, and some also use tertiary treatments.
What is the process of tertiary treatment?
One of the biological treatment processes is called Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR). This diagram shows the treatment steps that Saskatoon wastewater goes through. Biological Nutrient Removal Process.
What does the provincial government do?
Provincial and territorial governments generally assist municipal governments with funds to build and maintain infrastructure. Municipal governments directly oversee the wastewater treatment process, and are able to pass additional by-laws.
Why Treat Wastewater?
It's a matter of caring for our environment and for our own health. There are a lot of good reasons why keeping our water clean is an important priority:
Wastewater treatment
The major aim of wastewater treatment is to remove as much of the suspended solids as possible before the remaining water, called effluent, is discharged back to the environment. As solid material decays, it uses up oxygen, which is needed by the plants and animals living in the water.
What are the main objectives of primary treatment?
The main objectives of primary treatment of wastewater are: To reduce the strength of sewage to the extent 30% to 50%. To remove settleable solids by 80% to 90%. To reduce BOD by 30% to 35%. To make the sewage fit for further treatment process.
How to treat wastewater?
The main objectives of primary treatment of wastewater are: 1 To reduce the strength of sewage to the extent 30% to 50%. 2 To remove settleable solids by 80% to 90%. 3 To reduce BOD by 30% to 35%. 4 To make the sewage fit for further treatment process.
What is primary sedimentation tank?
Primary sedimentation tank is also known as primary clarifier and is located just after grit chamber. It may be rectangular, circular or square shape. The principle and construction details are same as that of plain sedimentation tank W.T.P.
What are the stages of wastewater treatment?
What Are the Three Stages of Wastewater Treatment? There are three main stages of the wastewater treatment process, aptly known as primary, secondary and tertiary water treatment. In some applications, more advanced treatment is required, known as quaternary water treatment.
What is the process of removing sediment from a wastewater system?
1. Biofiltration. Bio filtration uses sand filters, contact filters or trickling filters to ensure that any additional sediment is removed from the wastewater. 2. Aeration. Aeration is a lengthy process which increases oxygen saturation by introducing air to wastewater.
What is tertiary treatment?
In the case of water treated by municipalities, tertiary treatment also involves the removal of pathogens, which ensures that water is safe for drinking purposes.
Where is wastewater held?
During primary treatment, wastewater is temporarily held in a settling tank where heavier solids sink to the bottom while lighter solids float to the surface. Once settled, these materials are held back while the remaining liquid is discharged or moved through to the more rigorous secondary phase of wastewater treatment.
Screening – Primary treatment for waste water
The first process in Primary Treatment for Wastewater is screening. I will show you the screening process and different types of screens used in primary wastewater treatment.
Flow Equalisation – Primary treatment for waste water
Under uniform flow rates, clarifiers and mechanised secondary treatment are more efficient.
Sedimentation – Primary treatment for wastewater
The wastewater, then moves to sedimentation ponds, settling tanks, or clarifiers after the removal of settled grit. The sedimentation process removes the settleable solids by gravitational settling under quiescent conditions.
Flocculation
Flocculation is a water treatment process to remove small suspended solids which don’t settle in the sedimentation tank. In this process solids form larger clusters, or flocs on the addition of a flocculent like aluminium sulphate.
Scum Removal
Lighter materials rise to the surface as sludge settles to the bottom of the sedimentation tanks. The constituents of ‘scum’ are grease, oils, plastics, and soap. Scum is skimmed off the surface of the wastewater by slow-moving rakes. Scum is thickened before being poured into the digesters with the sludge.
What is wastewater treatment?
Wastewater treatment (WWT) is a process to remove harmful contaminants from wastewater or sewage produced by households and industrial facilities. Wastewater is full of contaminants including bacteria, chemicals, and other toxins and nutrients.
What is the gas produced during anaerobic process?
The gas produced during this anaerobic process contains a large amount of methane, which is harvested and then burned to generate electricity. Fertilizer Production: Any remaining biodegradable material can be dried in “drying lagoons”, and then turned into natural fertilizer.
What temperature is sludge treated?
It is treated with anaerobic bacteria in special fully-enclosed digesters that are heated to 35 degrees Celsius.
How does wastewater reduce the amount of waste?
Waste Reduction: Through the treatment of wastewater, the amount of harmful waste that is usually released into the environment is reduced. By doing so, companies can reduce the health risks associated with environmental pollution, as well as reduce the water loss induced through water pollution.
What is the polluted form of water generated from rainwater runoff and human activities?
Wastewater is the polluted form of water generated from rainwater runoff and human activities. It is also called sewage. It is typically categorized by the manner in which it is generated—specifically, as domestic sewage, industrial sewage, or storm sewage (stormwater).
What is wastewater treatment?
Wastewater treatment, also called sewage treatment, the removal of impurities from wastewater, or sewage, before it reaches aquifers or natural bodies of water such as rivers, lakes, estuaries, and oceans.
What was the drainage system of ancient Rome?
It included many surface conduits that were connected to a large vaulted channel called the Cloaca Maxima (“Great Sewer”), which carried drainage water to the Tiber River. Built of stone and on a grand scale, the Cloaca Maxima is one of the oldest existing monuments of Roman engineering.
Why is water polluted?
In broad terms, water is said to be polluted when it contains enough impurities to make it unfit for a particular use, such as drinking, swimming, or fishing. Although water quality is affected by natural conditions, the word pollution usually implies human activity as the source of contamination. Water pollution, therefore, is caused primarily by ...
What are the processes used in wastewater treatment?
Sewage treatment facilities use physical, chemical, and biological processes for water purification. The processes used in these facilities are also categorized as preliminary, primary, secondary, and tertiary. Preliminary and primary stages remove rags and suspended solids. Secondary processes mainly remove suspended and dissolved organics.
Why is pretreatment important in wastewater treatment?
For example, pretreatment of industrial wastewater, with the aim of preventing toxic chemicals from interfering with the biological processes used at sewage treatment plants, often became a necessity.
Why was energy conservation important in the 1970s?
Wastewater treatment plants became large, complex facilities that required considerable amounts of energy for their operation. After the rise of oil prices in the 1970s, concern for energy conservation became a more important factor in the design of new pollution control systems.
