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TRANSPORT AND FATE OF NUTRIENTS AND PATHOGENS DURING SEWAGE TREATMENT IN A MOUND SYSTEM
Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org
Citation: Paper number 701P0104, . (doi: 10.13031/2013.15805)Authors: K.J. Charles, J.F. Schijven, D. Baker, D.J. Roser, D.A. Deere, N.J. Ashbolt
Keywords: Sewage treatment, virus, phosphorus, sand mound
A number of studies have been undertaken to assess the performance of filter materials to
remove phosphorus. However, less has been reported about the broader performance of these
systems. This paper reports experiments undertaken on an amended sand mound that assess, not
only the removal of phosphorus for which the system was designed, but a range of sewage
constituents, in particular, enteric viruses.
Timeseries sampling indicated high phosphorus removal with an arithmetic average of 98% (20th
- 80th percentile range of 98.3-99.6 %) but poor nitrogen removal (average 19%). Pathogen
removal appeared to be dependent on the microorganism. Bacteria and parasitic protozoa
removal was high, based on >3.8 log10 reduction of thermotolerant coliforms (20th - 80th
percentile range of 2.9 4.5 log10) and 2.4 log10 reduction of C. perfringens (20th - 80th percentile
range of 1.1 3.7 log10). Human enteric virus removal was generally good, based on removals of
>5 log10 units for MS2 bacteriophage and 2.9 log10 units for PRD1, however somatic coliphage
removal was low at 1.5 log10 units (20th - 80th percentile range of 0.5 2.5 log10 units).
Inactivation was an important removal mechanism, particularly for MS2, which implies that
these results may not be representative for a similar design with different chemistry.