Wastewater treatment
Early in the 1970’s, the United States began to foresee many problems in the future of the nation’s water. The main problems were the concern for sanitation, as well as the need for additional water sources. With the help of several environmentalist and engineers, they devised a way to knock out the problem with one stone. As a result, Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972. Through this act Congress put the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and corresponding state agencies in charge of regulating all activities that threaten the quality of the nation’s water resources. In addition, Congress also adopted the Federal Clean Water Act, which set a national goal to eliminate the discharge of pollutants into all navigable waters by 1985. With the framework in order, several organizations began popping up. Among these, was the revolutionary process of wastewater treatment. The wastewater treatment process is very complex. It is basically a recycling process of our everyday water. It takes the dirty sewage water from our residences and businesses and makes it pure again before it is reused, applied to land, or before it enters another body of water. The main goal of this treatment is to
In filtration, water is removed by using sand drying beds, vacuum filters, filter presses, and centrifuges. After being sent through this process the sludge becomes dried out and is referred to as a sludge cake. The second step is to decompose organic matter. To do this, Aerobic and Anaerobic digestion is used. The last treatment that the sludge receives is the addition of caustic chemicals or heat treatment. This treatment kills disease causing organisms. After the completion of this the sludge is ready to be disposed of. Usually treated sludge and sludge cakes are spread out over fields returning the organic matter and nutrients to the soil. Beginning tests with wastewaters reveal that this new treatment process and system can efficiently remove up to 99 percent of the dyes and metals from the wastewater. There are also many reasons to believe that this is an improved way of treating wastewater. For one, it is more cost-effective. The operating costs of the new process are much lower than the chlorination method which is currently the cheapest among the existing processes. Also there is a much shorter retention time. Conventional treatment generally requires a retention time from a few hours for physical/chemical methods to days or even weeks for biological methods. This new process can accomplish the entire treatment within 5-10 minutes! This process is also operational at high temperatures. This makes it possible to recycle the treated water back to the units while the water is still hot. None of the existing wastewater treatment methods can be applied at high operating temperatures. The last and probably the most important, is that through this process the water quality is remarkable. This new treatment process improves the water quality to recycling standards with little to no sludge. Obviously, this new method of treating wastewater seems entirely more effective than the conventional way. So with all this said, we must begin to think, what is the best method for wastewater treatment? Or is there one? One thing is obvious, water treatment is a very complex process in which we rely on to survive. Without water and wastewater treatment, who knows what diseases would be co
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Aerobic Anaerobic,
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Approximate Word count = 1494
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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