Pretreatment Coarse Screening Often the first step in wastewater treatment is coarse screening to remove large materials (rags,

logs and other large objects) from the wastewater that could interfere with the treatment process. Grit Chambers The next step is to remove smaller objects (such as sand, broken glass, silt and pebbles). If these objects are not removed, they can damage pumps and other mechanical devices. Flow Equalization Wastewater seldom flows into wastewater treatment plants at the same rate throughout each day. In many cities, the greatest flows reaching the wastewater treatment plants arrive midmorning. Such uneven flow volumes reduce wastewater treatment plants' efficiency. To even out these periods of high and low flow, large basins are constructed at some wastewater treatment plants to store the wastewater flow from peak periods and release it for treatment. These basins require aeration and mixing to prevent odors and deposition of solids. Primary Treatment After screening the solids and removing the grit, the wastewater still contains light organic suspended solids. Some of these can be removed by gravity in a sedimentation tank. These tanks are typically twelve feet deep and hold the wastewater for two or three hours. What settles out is called sludge. The sludge is removed from the primary treatment tank with mechanical scrapers and pumps. Grease, oil, and other floating substances rise to the top, where they are removed by surface skimming equipment. Secondary Treatment Secondary treatment removes soluble materials that require oxygen for decay, as well as further removal of suspended solids. BOD Many of the pollutants in city wastewater, if not treated and dumped directly into streams, kill fish and other wildlife by depriving them of oxygen. These pollutants naturally rot, or decompose, on their own; but require oxygen to do so. These pollutants steal dissolved oxygen from the water as they decompose, and fish and other aquatic wildlife die from oxygen starvation.

The amount of these oxygen-stealing pollutants present in wastewater is measured in terms of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD, pronounced "bee-oh-dee"). BOD is the amount of oxygen, usually measured in milligrams of oxygen per liter of wastewater, required to decompose the organic pollutants found in the wastewater. Because these organic pollutants decompose on their own in the presence of oxygen and common microorganisms, these pollutants can be decomposed by merely forcing oxygen into the wastewater and giving these pollutants time to decompose by natural processes. This is the procedure used in secondary treatment. The two most common secondary treatment methods are trickling filters and activated sludge. Trickling Filters A trickling filter is a bed of coarse stone or perforated plastic material over which wastewater is sprayed. The most common design is a bed of stones three to ten feet deep inside a large circular concrete tank. Some tanks are more than 200 feet in diameter. The wastewater is sprayed over the filter from rotating arms. As the wastewater trickles through the bed, microorganisms establish themselves on the stone or plastic surfaces as slime. The wastewater picks up oxygen as it is sprayed over the filter and passes over these microorganisms. These microorganisms, in the presence of high amounts of oxygen, feed on the organic materials in the wastewater. The microbial slime on the filter bed will grow and eventually clog the filter if not washed out. Thus, the flow from the filter is sent to a sedimentation basin to allow these solids to settle out. This sedimentation basin is called a secondary clarifier or a final clarifier to distinguish it from the sedimentation basin used for primary treatment. Activated Sludge Activated sludge is another method of providing secondary treatment to wastewater, whereby a mixture of wastewater and biological sludge (microorganisms) is agitated and aerated. The biological solids are then allowed to settle out. The name "activated sludge" comes from the biological mass formed when oxygen (in the form of air) is continuously injected into the wastewater. In this process, microorganisms are thoroughly mixed with organics under conditions that stimulate their growth. As the microorganisms grow and are mixed by the agitation of the air, the individual microorganisms clump (or flocculate) together to form a mass of microbes called activated sludge. About eight cubic feet of air are required for every cubic foot of wastewater. In the activated sludge process, wastewater flows continuously into an aeration tank where air is injected into the wastewater to mix the wastewater with the activated sludge, and also to

provide the oxygen needed for the microorganisms to break down the organic pollutants. The mixture of wastewater and activated sludge is called mixed liquor. The mixed liquor flows to a secondary clarifier (settling tank) where the activated sludge settles out. Some (usually twenty or thirty percent) of the settled sludge is returned to the aeration tank (and hence is called return sludge) to maintain a high population of microbes to break down the organics. Since more activated sludge is produced than is needed for return sludge, the excess sludge is removed and disposed of. Secondary Clarifiers Regardless which method of secondary treatment is used, the end result is a mixture of microorganisms and partially treated wastewater that is essentially free of dissolved and suspended organic material. The organic material that was dissolved or suspended in the wastewater has now been broken down and consumed by these microorganisms. These microorganisms, while very small, are still large enough to settle out of the wastewater. Wastewater leaving trickling filters and activated sludge aeration tanks is then sent to secondary clarifiers (settling tanks) where the microorganisms settle out. At this point, the wastewater treatment process is nearly completed. Disinfection The next step in secondary wastewater treatment is disinfection. In the United States, the most common method of disinfection is chlorination. Chlorine is injected into the wastewater and the wastewater is held in a basin for about fifteen minutes to allow the chlorine to react with any remaining pathogens. Since chlorine is toxic to fish, the chlorine is often removed from the wastewater as a last step. The treated wastewater can then be released into a stream. Sludge Both the primary and the secondary treatment processes produce large amounts of sludge. Sludge is commonly disposed of by storing it in a tank (called a digester) where it undergoes anaerobic digestion. Methane gas is one by-product of anaerobic digestion, which can be burned off or used as fuel. Another commonly used method of disposal is incineration.