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Prediction of consumer product chemical concentrations as a function of publicly owned treatment works treatment type and riverine dilution
Author(s) -
Rapaport Robert A.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1002/etc.5620070204
Subject(s) - effluent , dilution , environmental science , water quality , streams , outfall , sewage treatment , trickling filter , streamflow , water treatment , fraction (chemistry) , environmental engineering , chemistry , drainage basin , chromatography , ecology , biology , computer science , computer network , physics , cartography , thermodynamics , geography
In the United States, effluent from publicly owned treatment works (POTW) becomes diluted in surface waters. These initial concentrations of chemicals in rivers below the effluent outfalls are used as conservative estimates of downstream concentrations. Using computerized U.S. Environmental Protection Agency databases, which include POTW flow rates and receiving water stream flows, dilution factors were determined for activated sludge, trickling filter, and primary treatments as a function of total U.S. POTW discharge and the total number of POTW. Curves were constructed and mathematical functions fitted for POTW flow and number versus dilution factor for each of the treatment types. Using a computer program in which these curves are applied, the fraction of total POTW flow discharged to U.S. rivers and streams that will have a concentration greater than any specified value (e.g., water quality criteria) can be predicted. This procedure will be useful in safety assessments of chemicals discharged to natural waters as components of POTW effluent.