Fate of Semivolatile Priority Pollutants in a Wastewater Treatment Plant

摘要

This study was designed to measure the removal efficiency of a demonstration wastewater treatment plant for a series of semivolatile priority pollutants. Twenty-two representative organic priority pollutants were continuously dosed into the influent side of a dual-stream demonstration plant at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Test and Evaluation Facility in Cincinnati, Ohio. These organic pollutants were administered at an average concentration of 50 ppb (W/V). Representative aqueous and sludge samples were taken at several points in the treatment sequence to study the fates of the added compounds. Wastewater samples showed the residual pollutant burden carried forward in each treatment step, and sludge samples revealed the amount of the organic pollutants retained in the sludge (or in the case of activated sludge, chemically altered by the sludge itself).