In a time when there seems to be a good deal of uncertainty about the future of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it is possible that more and more cities will spend more time understanding the definition of wastewater treatment and the impact it has on a community. Across the country, in towns both small and large, city officials often find themselves in negotiations for both locations and providers of wastewater treatment technologies.
As individual citizens and entire communities try to brace themselves for the changes that could be part of the new Presidential administration, few doubt that it will always be important to understand the purpose and definition of wastewater treatment systems. Even if the federal government loosens or eliminates its control of the current wastewater management regulations, for the safety of our communities, local officials will need to serve as watchdogs.
Consider some of the following facts and figures about the purpose and use of wastewater treatment methods in this company:
- Currently, U.S. wastewater treatment facilities process as much as 34 billion gallons of wastewater every day.
- 32 billion gallons of municipal wastewater are produced in the U.S. everyday, but less than 10% of that is intentionally reused.
- Primary wastewater treatment involves basic processes to remove suspended solid waste and reduce its biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). The official definition of BOD is the amount of oxygen microorganisms must consume to breakdown the organic material present in the wastewater. Ideally, 20% to 305 is the amount that the primary treatment process can reduce BOD; likewise, 60% is the ideal reduction in suspended solids during the primary treatment.
- Secondary treatment process uses another set of biological procedures to catch the dissolved organic matter that is missed in primary treatment. The goal of this secondary treatment step is to remove as much as 85% of both the BOD and total suspended solids.
- water pollution continues to be a growing concern in many parts of the country. In fact, nearly 40% of the lakes in America are too polluted for swimming, fishing, or aquatic life.
- Unfortunately, every year 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, industrial waste, and storm water are dumped into U.S. water.
