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LAGOON SYSTEMS FOR EXTENSIVE WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS

FROM THE RURAL AGGLOMERATIONS
Conference Paper · June 2014

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 LAGOON SYSTEMS FOR EXTENSIVE WASTEWATER
TREATMENT PLANTS FROM THE RURAL
AGGLOMERATIONS
1 1 1 2
Victor-Viorel Safta , Mirela Dincă , Gabriel-Alexandru Constantin , Adrian Boureci
1
University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Department of BIOTECHNICAL SYSTEMS
2 Captain Nicolae Ple oianu High School of Râmnicu Vâlcea

ABSTRACT

Taking into account that implementation in the rural area of sewage systems and wastewater treatment
in classic form, involves considerable investments, there are presented as particularly attractive alternatives,
viable and significantly cheaper, both in construction and in operation, the use of modern and efficient sewage
solutions and the use of extensive wastewater treatment plants.
In the present paper there are presented the construction, operation, the characteristics and performances
of some extensive wastewater treatment plants with lagoons systems.

1. INTRODUCTION
Extensive treatment processes are wastewater treatment processes which are very close to
the natural processes of water purification (self-purification processes) where the main role is
played by microorganisms (bacteria). Naturally, into the contaminated water there are
microscopic algae which use solar energy to produce the required oxygen by photosynthesis
necessary to the bacterial cultures which are found dispersed or fixed on different supports in
the water subjected to the process, to achieve the purification of water by a biological process.
Therefore, the extensive treatment processes present the great advantage that the vast majority
of them, don’t need external input of energy for carrying out wastewater treatment processes,
making it very economical in use. Also, the extensive wastewater treatment plants have the
advantage of very high efficiency to remove the organic loads and the nutrients from water that
is subjected of treatmnent providing high quality effluent, that can be discharge without danger
to natural watercourses. Another advantage of the the extensive wastewater treatment plants is
that they have a very natural appearance (not like an industrial plant), fit perfectly into the
natural landscape, without affecting this one at all.
It is to be noted that extensive wastewater treatment plants have been developed in
different European countries (France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, and so on) usually for
serving small communities with a population of around 500 equivalent inhabitants [1,2].
In the present paper are presented the construction, operation, the characteristics and
performances of some extensive wastewater treatment plants with lagoons systems. For this
purpose will be analyzed the most common types of lagoons systems, namely: stabilisation
ponds systems (mycrophyte lagoons systems) and aerated lagoons systems.
Will be given representative exemples of extensive wastewater treatment plants with
lagoon systems from the country and the world, highlighting the constructive features and
the performances obtained.

2. OPERATING PRINCIPLES, CONSTRUCTION AND PERFORMANCE OF

LAGOONS SYSTEMS

Generally, lagoons are extensive installations where the wastewater subjected to treatment
is purified (treated) of the organic pollutant load by the biological activity of the bacterial
culture, essentially an aerobic type, which are dispersed in the water. The oxygen required for
aerobic fermentation process may be available, depending on the circumstances,

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from natural or artificial sources, the aeration mode giving the extensive installation type
designation, which may be with natural or aerated lagoons.
2.1. Stabilisation ponds systems (natural lagoons systems)
Extensive natural lagoon systems (also called stabilization ponds) are lagoons systems
in which two populations of micro-organisms proliferate interdependent, namely: aerobic
bacteria and planktonic algae, the latter being called "mycrophyte". The oxygen required for
the developing and maintaining the aerobic bacteria biomass is produced naturally through
photosynthesis by algae biomass that develops in the layer of water from lagoon in the
vicinity of the free surface (mirror) of water, which it is exposed to the solar radiation (light)
(see the scheme in Figure 1).

Figure 1: The biological process scheme from inside a natural lagoon, [2]
By means of its metabolism, aerobic bacteria decompose the organic matter from the
waste water in which they are dispersed, which converts and synthesizes for their
development, by removing significant amounts of carbon dioxide and water. The carbon
dioxide produced by the aerobic bacteria, as well as the mineral salts contained in
wastewater subjected to the process, allow the planktonic algae to multiply and develop.
This biological process is self-maintained as long as the system receives solar energy
and organic matter through the wastewater influent. It should be noted that in the lagoon
bottom, in the vicinity of their bottom, where sunlight does not penetrate, is developing the
anaerobic bacteria biomass that decompose the sedimented organic sludge. As a result of
this process, anaerobic fermentation of organic matter, carbon dioxide and methane are
released in the form of fermentation gas. This natural biological processes are carried out
relatively slowly, and therefore, in order to obtain a satisfactory degree of purification of the
water subjected to the process, it requires a high retention time.
Usually, the extensive systems with natural lagoons are formed from several lagoons
(ponds) placed in series through which the water subject to treatment flows.
In practice, natural lagoon system configuration most commonly encountered is the one
with 3 ponds. However, using configurations of systems with 4-6 ponds, besides getting a
purity of the effluent, is also achieved an effluent disinfection.
In these systems, the roles of each of the different ponds are: first pond provides, above
all, a significant reduction of the organic load of the waste water; the second pond ensure
the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus (nutrients); the third pond refines the wastewater
treatment and makes the system reliable, in case of failures occurred in the first two tanks or
during the maintenance of the system.

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 The performances obtained by wastewater treatment plants with natural lagoons are
the following: reduction of more than 75% of the organic matter load in the effluent,
calculated on the basis of the influent pollutant loading values, which corresponds to a
filtered COD concentration of 125 mg/l; the concentrations in total nitrogen at the discharge
level are very low in the summer, but can reach several dozen mg/l (expressed in N) in the
winter; the reduction in phosphorus is noticeable over the first few years (> 60%), then
dwindles down to zero after about 20 years; the natural lagoon effluent disinfection is
important, especially in summer (reduction in microbial load over 10000).
The main advantages of using extensive treatment systems with natural lagoons are: a
supply of energy is not necessary if exists a difference in level favorable to the gravitational
movement of the water in the system; the natural lagoons systems operating is simple, on the
condition that maintaining general cleaning; it eliminates a large part of nutrient pollution
(nitrogen and phosphorus), especially in summer; it provides a very good elimination of
pathogenic organisms in summer (4-5 logs) and good removal in winter (3 logs); constructions
and installations necessary for the establishment of the natural lagoon systems are not very
complex engineering required to achieve them remaining simple; it integrates well into the
landscape; absence of noise pollution; sludge from cleaning is well stabilised (except that from
at the head of the first basin) and is easy to spread on agricultural land.

2.2. Aerated lagoons

The extensive aerated lagoons systems are lagoons systems in which the oxygen required
for the development and maintenance of the aerobic bacteria biomass, taken up from the air, is
introduced by means of mechanical surface aerators or pneumatic insufflation systems.
It should be noted that for aerated lagoons systems is needed the energy supply for
conducting the working process, the energy consumption being similar to the intensive
plants with activated sludge aeration basins, with values in the range of 1.8 - 2 kW / kg
BOD5 removed. The major mechanisms that realize the working process in the aerated
lagoons are the following:
- the aeration required to produce and conduct the aerobic fermentation process,
where the water to be treated comes in contact with the aerobic micro-organisms (bacteria
and fungal species similar to those present in activated sludge instalations), that consume
and assimilate the pollutant loading of organic matter and the nutrients from water;
- the settling: suspended solids, that are found in the water subjected to the treatment
process in the form of groups of microorganisms, fermentation products and solid particles
embedded, with density higher than that of water, are settled forming a biological sludge.

Figure 2: Aerated lagoons extensive systems (principle and dimensioning schemes), [2]

The performances obtained by wastewater treatment plants with aerated lagoons are
the following:

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 - ensure a good quality of the effluent from the point of view of the organic load (a
reduction by more than 80% of the BOD);
- for nutrients, removal is limited to bacterial assimilation and remains around 25-30%;
this performance can be improved by the use of physical and chemical additives to
eliminate the orthophosphates.
The main advantages of using extensive treatment systems with aerated lagoons are the
large variation in hydraulic loading to the influents; influents with extremely high pollution
loads; uneven dispersion of active bacterial biomass in water leading to obtaining some
effluents with variable nutrient content; influents obtained from mixing wastewaters, easily
biodegradable, with wastewaters from industrial discharges, [2].

3. REPRESENTATIVE EXAMPLES OF LAGOONS SYSTEMS

3.1. Stabilization ponds systems (natural lagoons)
Waste stabilization ponds are one of the main natural wastewater treatment methods.
Further, there are presented representative examples of stabilization ponds systems (natural
lagoons), used in different countries.
The governments of Tanzania in collaboration with the World Bank, through Urban
Sector Rehabilitation Project (USRP), expanded and rehabilitated the network and constructed
wastewater treatment plant known as waste stabilization ponds. Currently there are 2080
customers who are connected to this sewerage network, which can be seen in figure 3.
Figure 4 shows a waste stabilization pond system at Ginebra in southwest of
Colombia (population is around 9.000 and wastewater flow is about 27 l/s). The resulted
effluent is used for the irrigation of sugar cane.

Figure 3: Construction of waste stabilization ponds in Tanzania, [3]

Figure 4: Waste stabilization ponds in Colombia (a) and Embankment protection with stone
(b), [4]

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 In figure 5 is presented another example of stabilization pond from Fortaleza, norteast
3
of Brazil. In this case, the influent flow is about 10.000 m /day and around half the flow is
from local textile factories.

Figure 5: Waste stabilization ponds in Brazil, [4]

3.2. Aerated lagoons for the treatment of municipal wastewater

Up to now several new methods of wastewater treatment in rural districts have been
applied. The oldest and easiest type of wastewater treatment plants are sedimentation and
oxidation lagoons, also referred to as “oxidation p onds”, “anaerobic ponds” or “naturally
aerated ponds” respectively.
A treatment plant for domestic wastewater should consist of a fine screen, two aerated
lagoons in series and at least one polishing lagoon. Aerated lagoons for municipal
wastewater are designed according to the volume load and the retention time.
Further, there are presented representative examples of aerated lagoons for the
treatment of municipal wastewater, used in Europe.
In figures 6 and 7 there are presented aerated lagoons used in Germany, [5].
In the figure 6 there are 2 aerated lagoons, 2 polishing lagoons and the inlet zone is
equipped with scum baffle and walkway made of concrete.

Figure 6: The construction of an aerated lagoon in Germany, [5]

In figure 7 is presented an example with 2 aerated lagoons, 1 polishing lagoon and the
inlet zone with scum baffle and walkway made of wood.

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 Figure 7: Aerated lagoon, Germany, [5]

Figure 8: Aerial view of the aerated lagoon system, Veazie, United States, [6]

4. CONCLUSIONS
In the present paper there was presented aspects regarding the construction, operation
and the characteristics and performances of some extensive wastewater treatment plants
with lagoon systems, namely stabilization ponds (natural lagoons) and aerated lagoons.
Using the extensive wastewater treatment plants with lagoon systems represent one of
the most practical and inexpensive method that is widely adopted in many countries around
the world. This, has proved to be an effective method in the removal of suspended and
dissolved organic substances and nutrients up to 80%.
References
[1] Safta, V.V., Procedee extensive de epurare a apelor uzate, Note de curs la disciplina Dezvoltare rurală
durabilă i protecţia mediului (Facultatea Ingineria Sistemelor Biotehnice, licenţă anul IV, Specializarea
Dezvoltare rurală durabilă) - anul universitar 2013-2014.
[2] ***Guide, Extensive Wastewater Treatment Processes - adapted to small and medium sized communities
(500 to 5000 population equivalents), Office of official publications of the European Community,
Luxembourg , 2001.
[3] http://www.muwsa.or.tz/index.php/sewerage_services/category/sewerage-general-info .
[4] http://web.deu.edu.tr/atiksu/ana52/ani4044-7.html – stabilization ponds.
[5] FUCHS Enprotec GmbH, Aerated lagoons for the treatment of municipal wastewater, Germany,
www.fuchs-germany.com.
[6] http://web.deu.edu.tr/atiksu/ana52/ani4044-13.html.

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