Protection of WWTP by Real-Time Detection of trade Waste
Annual Conference
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Industrial and trade waste discharged to sewer has the potential to cause process problems in receiving biological waste water treatment plants (WWTP) and advanced water reuse plants (AWP). Detection and quantification of intermittent and short lived industrial discharges by random discrete sampling is costly and unreliable because a large number of samples must be analysed for a range of possible contaminants with no guarantee of detection. Composite sampling is also problematic as averaging over a day or week makes it difficult to identify discrete discharges. Online monitoring for trade waste discharges is an efficient alternative.
In this work describes experiences in real-time monitoring for industrial waste effluents at a WWTP inlet location with a UV/Vis spectrometer. A number of trade waste discharges were detected and characterised by the equipment. A fraction of these correlated with process problems at the WWTP. Investigation upstream led to identification of a non-compliant industry. Resulting enforcement action resulted in cessation of the trade waste discharge and improvement in WWTP operation.
A brief review of similar data available from permanent monitoring locations at NZ WWTP is also presented and comments on potential for similar risks here are made.