AWWA WQTC57143

This paper presents the initial findings of an ongoing research study focusing on the removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) through tertiary wastewater treatment at two Northern California wastewater treatment facilities. The two wastewater treatment plants have slightly different wastewater treatment approaches, as summarized below. Treatment Plant A operates a wastewater treatment train including the following processes: aerated grit removal, primary sedimentation, secondary treatment with conventional activated sludge, secondary clarification, alum addition, and tertiary treatment using anthracite filtration. Treatment Plant A typically processes 17 to 20 MGD. Treatment Plant B operates a wastewater treatment train including: aerated grit removal, primary clarification, secondary treatment using trickling filters/biofilters, secondary clarification, alum addition and tertiary treatment using anthracite filtration. Treatment Plant B typically processes approximately 2.3 MGD in summer and up to 5 MGD during winter. Using this overview comparison of the two wastewater treatment facilities, the primary differences are of size and approach to secondary treatment. In terms of secondary treatment, whereas Treatment Plant A employs an activated sludge process, Treatment Plant B relies on a trickling filter with continuous flow of wastewater over the support media. As discussed in this paper, the choice of these processes for removal of dissolved and colloidal organic matter may affect the biodegradation and metabolism of selected organic constituents examined in this research. Both treatment plants employ filtration as a form of tertiary treatment downstream of the high-rate biological processes, the primary aim being removal of suspended solids and microorganisms. Downstream of tertiary treatment, pilot testing of AWT technologies allows comparison of PPCP and EDC removal through microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ozonation. Includes 6 references, tables, figures.