SISTEMAS DE DEPURACIÓN DE LOCALIDADES DE PEQUEÑA POBLACIÓN: ANÁLISIS Y PROPUESTAS DE MEJORA

Abstract

The performance of urban wastewater treatment plants located in low populated areas is in most cases poor, which can result in legal discharge requirements unfulfillment. Even though these types of installations are operational plants, they have not been subjected to a rigorous performance evaluation, being as a consequence inefficient processes. The present work describes the actions carried out to determine the operating status of several wastewater treatment plants. Once defined the operating problems, some technical-operational low cost modifications have been proposed in order to optimize the depuration systems. For this end, a number of treatment plants have been selected from different Basque Country localities. The study has been focused on the treatment design analysis and the evaluation of the main physicochemical parameters that characterize the discharge quality, on a year basis. Based on the results, improvement alternatives for the treatment plants have been proposed. In some of the cases, the addition of a complementary treatment has been required. The inversion cost, as well as maintenance and operating costs involved in wastewater treatment plants located in low populated areas is very relevant. Thus, simple and assumable solutions that could improve treatment efficiency and, therefore, fulfil legal discharge limits have been proposed. Keywords: wastewater; low populated areas; depuration; improvements; low cost systems