Wastewater Treatment Plants: A Comparison of Three Different Plants and Their Processes, Facilities, and Challenges They Face

摘要

This study compared methods of wastewater treatment, and the conditions that they must be able to accommodate. To address this issue I visited wastewater treatment plants in three locations: Clarksdale, MS; University of Mississippi; and Oxford, MS. Additionally, I examined the chemistry and microbiology of the water in their respective receiving streams. I hypothesized that the wastewater plant with the most modern facilities and resources available would have the least effect on the water quality of its receiving stream. At each plant I learned what chemicals, equipment, and other methods are used, as well as unique challenges their treatment systems faced. Receiving streams were sampled for water quality at different points above and below the effluent input. Parameters examined include dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, nitrate concentrations, and densities of total coliforms and E. Coli. The findings of this research show that the Oxford, MS, had the least impact on its receiving stream, having all of its effluent contaminants within the parameters set by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. Although, overall, it did not have the most contemporary methods of wastewater treatment, it did have the most resources available, as well as the receiving stream with the highest assimilation capacity. The receiving stream in Clarksdale, MS, had high coliform densities, and the effluent from the plant at the University of Mississippi had high nitrate concentrations, but I was unable to make measurements upstream of its effluent discharge.