Social, Environmental, and Economic Wastewater Decision Support Tool for Small Systems
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 12
Abstract
Small wastewater systems serving less than 10,000 population equivalents (p.e.) face a wide range of challenges due to technical and managerial capacity issues, limited resources, and the need to reduce environmental impacts. Based on the wide range of challenges of small systems, the authors of this manuscript developed the social, environmental, and economic wastewater decision support tool (SEE WWDST) to aid decision makers in comparing the sustainability of treatment alternatives. The tool uses multi-criteria decision analysis to produce a single SEE impact score that assesses 12 sustainability metrics across three larger categories: economic performance (e.g., net present worth of costs, affordability), environmental performance (e.g., carbon footprint, eutrophication, water reclaimed), and social performance (e.g., maintenance time, employee training, degree of automation, operator certification requirement, system intrusiveness, daily, and seasonal resilience). This paper compares the performance of three onsite wastewater treatment systems in Florida. The three systems evaluated include: (1) a passive septic tank effluent biofilter (STEB) system, (2) a mechanized aerobic treatment unit (ATU) system, and (3) a passive clay, sulfur, and shell biofilter (CSSB) system. The passive CSSB system was found to be the preferred system due to its lower present worth of cost, lower carbon footprint and eutrophication potential, and better performance for various social factors (e.g., maintenance time, degree of automation, system intrusiveness). The passive STEB system was the second preferred alternative, despite having a worse social performance and the highest present worth of cost. The systems were then assessed using even, social, environmental, and economic weighting preferences and a sensitivity analysis was conducted. In spite of shifts in weighting preference and changes to input data parameters to assess sensitivity, the passive CSSB system was found to be the preferred alternative. This paper highlights the importance of using triple bottom line sustainability metrics to assess small wastewater treatment alternatives using a novel decision support tool.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This research has been supported by a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priority Area 3: Training and Technical Assistance for Small Publicly-Owned Wastewater Systems and Onsite/Decentralized Wastewater Systems to Help Improve Water Quality and Sustainable Operations. This publication was developed under Assistance Agreement No. 83938501 awarded by the US Environmental Protection Agency to Rural Community Assistance Partnership, Inc. It has not been formally reviewed by the US EPA. The views expressed in this document are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Agency. The US EPA does not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this publication. We would like to acknowledge Nancy Diaz-Elsayed, Michelle Henderson, Damann Anderson, and Kevin Kundert for their valuable feedback.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 148 • Issue 12 • December 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 29, 2021
Accepted: Jun 17, 2022
Published online: Sep 19, 2022
Published in print: Dec 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Feb 19, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Analysis (by type)
- Benefit cost ratios
- Business management
- Decision making
- Decision support systems
- Economic factors
- Ecosystems
- Engineering fundamentals
- Environmental engineering
- Financial management
- Practice and Profession
- Sensitivity analysis
- Social factors
- Sustainable development
- Wastewater management
- Wastewater treatment
- Water reclamation
- Water treatment
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