Aerated Rock Filters for Enhanced Ammonia and Fecal Coliform Removal from Facultative Pond Effluents
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 4
Abstract
Rock filters used to treat effluents from waste stabilization ponds do not remove ammonia as they are anoxic. A pilot-scale aerated rock filter was investigated, in parallel with an unaerated control, over an period to determine whether aeration provided conditions within the rock filter for nitrification to occur. Facultative pond effluent containing was applied to the filters at a hydraulic loading rate of during the first and at thereafter. The results show that the ammonia and nitrate concentrations in the effluent from the aerated filter were and , respectively, whereas the ammonia concentration in the effluent from the control filter was . Fecal coliforms were reduced in the aerated filter to a geometric mean count of ; in contrast the effluent from the control filter contained fecal coliforms per . Aerated rock filters are thus a useful land-saving alternative to aerobic maturation ponds.
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Acknowledgments
The writers wish to acknowledge financial support from the BOC Foundation (Windlesham, Surrey, England) and Yorkshire Water (Bradford, Yorkshire, England). The writers are grateful to Miller Camargo-Valero for help with the oxygen transfer determination.
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© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 18, 2005
Accepted: Jul 15, 2005
Published online: Apr 1, 2006
Published in print: Apr 2006
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