Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version. If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options. Field Performance of Advanced Wastewater Pretreatment Systems – Inferences from North Carolina’s ExperiencePublished by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org Citation: Eleventh Individual and Small Community Sewage Systems Conference Proceedings, 20-24 October 2007, Warwick, Rhode Island 701P1107cd.(doi:10.13031/2013.24003)Authors: S J Berkowitz Keywords: Wastewater Treatment, Peat Systems, Textile Systems, Media Filters, Sampling protocol, Performance Standards A growing number of single and multi-family homes in North Carolina rely on advanced wastewater pretreatment systems (AWPS) prior to subsurface dispersal, especially in the States Coastal resort communities. Use of two models of peat media systems and more recently textile media systems has become widespread. All systems are required to have an operator, whom inspects systems at least semiannually, and currently collects influent and effluent samples at least annually. The local health departments also routinely inspect the systems, in addition to responding to failures and nuisance complaints. North Carolinas recently established influent and effluent performance standards for AWPS are described, and the results of data collected during 2006 from three types of systems at over 400 sites are presented. Field results are compared to comparable influent data from bench test sites where AWPS receive certification. Influent concentrations of TKN are nearly twice as strong as for wastewater used at existing bench-test sites (NSF, ETV), indicating a need for new or modified testing sites to be more representative of individual home flows. Field data are evaluated against multiple performance measures (mean, 95-percent confidence intervals, percent exceedence), as well as based on a visual inspection protocol. Reasons for compliance excursions are discussed. Finally, an analysis is presented to evaluate the number of grab samples needed to reach accurate and replicable conclusions about AWPS compliance with established standards. Twenty randomly-sampled sites is too few but results from 60 sites did not appear to add much improvement to results from 40 sites, in comparison to conclusions drawn by sampling all sites. (Download PDF) (Export to EndNotes)
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