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Land treatment of municipal wastewater has been practiced since 1840. The use of land to treat domestic wastewater has received major impetus recently with the passage of the 1972 Amendments (PL 92-500) and the 1977 Amendments (PL-217) to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The 1977 Amendments (the Clean Water Act) provide certain incentives for funding land treatment systems through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Construction Grants Program. This program encourages the use of innovative and alternative technology for the treatment of municipal wastewater. Major emphasis is placed on the planning, design, and construction of cost-effective municipal treatment works that maximize recycling and reclamation of water, nutrients, and energy, and minimize adverse environmental and public health impacts. These developments have made the land treatment of wastewater a viable alternative. Previous EPA research has focused on two aspects of the land treatment of wastewater - its long-term environmental effects, and the design considerations for land treatment systems. EPA has recently produced a series of 10 documents that present the effects of long-term wastewater application at selected slow-rate and rapid infiltration sites. These studies are intended to provide new insights into the long-term effects of land treatment of municipal wastewater. In the area of land treatment system design, EPA (in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture) has produced the Process Design Manual for Land Treatment of Municipal Wastewater (EPA-625/1-77-008). This manual, which is currently undergoing revision, is the major data source for the design of land treatment systems. Results reported in this publication related to design will be incorporated into the revised manual when it is reissued. None of the above documents adequately addresses the issues of operation and maintenance of land treatment systems, however. The purpose of this study was to provide information on operation and maintenance, staffing, and costs. The study was also intended to describe problems currently being experienced at land treatment sites because of operator and/or design limitations. |
