Abstract |
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated a program to study the occurrence and fate of 129 selected toxic organic and inorganic pollutants (priority pollutants) by means of a sampling program, at 40 publicly owned treatment works (POTW's). The first phase of this work was a pilot study at two POTW's to select the parameters of interest and establish detailed technical procedures that will be used for the overall project. In this report, data obtained from the two POTW's selected for the pilot study are presented. Since these two plants have different proportions of industrial contributions and priority pollutant levels in POTW influents is examined. Additionally, other specific phenomena were studied, including the overall removal of toxic pollutants, removal of toxic pollutants, removal mechanisms, concentration of toxic pollutants in sludge and the formation of chlorinated hydrocarbons during chlorine hydrocarbon during chlorine disinfection. EPA protocol for collection, sampling and analysis of priority pollutants was followed for each procedure performed in the study, except where noted. Details of specific goals of the pilot study are outlined below. |