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FIELD PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF TEXTILE FILTER UNITS EMPLOYED IN ONSITE WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Paper number  701P0104,  . (doi: 10.13031/2013.15811)
Authors:   A.L. Wren, R.L. Siegrist, K.S. Lowe, R. Laws
Keywords:   Onsite Wastewater Treatment, Virus Removal, Nitrogen Reduction, Packed Bed Filters, Performance Reliability

As part of a collaborative research project between the Colorado School of Mines and Jefferson County Department of Health and Environment, the performance data from 30 onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) utilizing engineered pretreatment units was evaluated. A subset of eight OWTS employing textile media filtration units were selected for additional study. The study examined the performance of these units including their operational requirements and treatment efficiency, with an emphasis on nitrogen transformation and virus removal. During a 12-week monitoring period, biweekly samples were collected from each of the eight sites and analyzed for pH, alkalinity, solids, carbonaceous biological demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand, nitrogen species, total phosphorous, and fecal coliform bacteria; virus removal was assessed using bacteriophages at four of the eight sites. The results of the research revealed wide variation in performance of the textile filter units (TFUs) with BOD5 average effluent concentrations ranging from 4 to 45 mg/L, total suspended solids (TSS) concentrations ranging from 1 to 83 mg/L, and total nitrogen (TN) concentrations ranging from 12 to 136 mg/L. The systems evaluated in many respects did not consistently meet potential performance expectations or achieve regulated effluent criteria. The average effluent concentrations from all eight systems only met the performance criteria a fraction of the time: 50% for BOD5 at <15 mg/L, 56% TSS at <15 mg/L, and 53% for TN at < 20 mg-N/L. The virus tracer test revealed removal efficiencies ranging from 0.4 to 0.8-log reduction for virus for each single pass through the textile media filter yielding an estimated removal with multiple passes of approximately 3 logs.

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