Wastewater Flow from Sports Spectators

A crowd of people at a sports event can generate a large flow of wastewater to a collection and treatment system; however, accurate design information is scarce. Football games regularly attract crowds of approx 50,000 to the Beaver Stadium on the University Park, Pa., campus of the Pennsylvania State University. On football days a significant increase in wastewater flow is recorded at the University wastewater treatment plant. Operating problems attributed at least partly to the increase in hydraulic loading due to flows from football games include unsatisfactory final settlement of activated sludge during the game season. In this investigation, the wastewater contribution per spectator at the stadium was determined from the flow records. In addition, from the slight but significant increase in wastewater flow observed after periods of rain the infiltration hydrograph was determined. This demonstrated technique of determining the time variation of infiltration from flow records during both wet and dry periods may be applied where it is required to obtain rate of infiltration from design storms of specified intensity and duration.