ENVR-S335 - U9 Water and Wastewater Treatment

ENVR S335
Environmental Control,
Monitoring and Modeling
Unit 9
Water and
wastewater treatment
211
OUHK Course Team
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Dr Gordon Maxwell, OUHK (Units 4–12)
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Prof. C S Poon, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
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Contents
Introduction 1
Water and wastewater quality requirements 6

Physical water quality parameters 6
Chemical water quality parameters 8
Inorganic pollutants in water 19
Toxic and persistent substances 20
Biological water quality parameters 21
Managing potable water and drinking water quality standards 26
Hong Kong drinking water standard 28
Is our water safe for drinking? 29
Wastewater characteristics and required standards 30
Water treatment 32
Physical treatment processes 32
Sedimentation 36
Screening 39
Filtration 42
Gas and heat transfer 44
Chemical treatment processes 48

Overview of chemical conversion 48
Coagulation 51
Softening 52
Disinfection 56
Biological treatment processes 60

Introduction 60
General metabolic processes 61
Activated sludge 63
Attached culture systems 64
References 66
Key environmental concepts 68
Feedback on activities 70
Appendix 1 74
Unit 9 1
Introduction
After studying the Noise Block, we go into the issues concerning water.
Let us begin by studying the water system.
Hong Kong, covering Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula, New
Territories and 235 outlying islands, has a land area of only 1,102 km2.
Yet, with the efforts of the approximately 7.0 million people (as of the
end of 2007) here, Hong Kong has become a world-class financial,
trading and business centre. The city’s most valuable treasure is its
harbour. It supported the life of fishers of 150 years ago and has made
Hong Kong an important world port.
Although surrounded by seawater and a beautiful coastline, Hong Kong

does not have enough fresh water to sustain the life of its population.
More than 35% of the land in Hong Kong is gazetted as Water Gathering
Grounds for storage of rainwater for domestic supply. Therefore, 70%
of the water in the watercourses of Hong Kong has been dammed
in the upper reach of watercourses — artificial lakes, or reservoirs.
Furthermore, since the 1960s, Hong Kong has had an agreement with
the Mainland government for importing freshwater (Guangdong and
Hong Kong Water Supplies Department 1996). Nowadays, more than
78% of locally supplied water is taken from the Dongjiang (East River),
a tributary of the Pearl River. Through an open natural channel (the
Shek Ma Stream) in the past, and a closed aqueduct since the middle
of 2003, raw water in the lower section of the Dongjiang is pumped
to Hong Kong and stored in reservoirs, e.g. the High Island Reservoir
and the Plover Cove Reservoir. The current cost of water acquisition
is HK$3.085 per m3, but this does not include the cost of advanced
treatments in local water treatment plants to meet the World Health
Organization (WHO) standards for drinking water. Therefore, our tiny
water resource is very expensive. Taking into account the daily water
consumption rate of ~0.2 m3 per person per day, the Government must
spend quite a lot of money every year to promote the concept of saving
our water.
During the past 40 years, rapid population and economy growth resulted
in serious pollution in the inland and marine waters of Hong Kong.
The same happened in the catchment of the Dongjiang after the 1980s,
as a result of increased economic activities in the Mainland. To tackle
the severe problems of water pollution caused by domestic sewage,
industrial effluent and livestock waste discharge, the Water Pollution
Control Ordinance of Hong Kong (WPCO) was enacted in the mid-
1980s. Under the WPCO, the Environmental Protection Department
(EPD) is the designated authority to delineate Water Control Zones
(WCZs) and to set specific Water Quality Objectives (WQOs) for
protecting inland and marine waters. The various environmental
objectives to be achieved range from drinking water supplies,
agriculture, fisheries, and support of aquatic life, to maintaining the
functions of draining channels in town areas. The detailed contents of
the WPCO are discussed in ENVR S319/ ENVR S341 Environmental
2 ENVR S335 Environmental Control, Monitoring and Modeling
Legislation and Management. In ENVR S335, we focus on studying the

control, monitoring and modelling of water quality.
To ensure the various water policies and legislation are realistic, and
to provide supporting data for further review and enhancement of
the existing policies and legislation, the quality of water should be
monitored regularly. Figure 9.1 A & B shows the 76 marine and 82
river sampling stations of the EPD. You may be glad to know what the
essential parameters are to be monitored in water surveys. In the later
sections of this unit, we discuss the physical, chemical and biological
parameters commonly used by water scientists, environmental engineers
and policymakers. For information, these water quality parameters are
the essential components for setting WQOs and designing water and
sewage treatment plants.
A Marine water monitoring stations in Hong Kong

Unit 9 3
B River water monitoring stations in Hong Kong
Figure 9.1 Environmental Protection Department (EPD)’s stations ( / ) of

marine (A) and rivers (B) water quality monitoring (Marine Water
Quality in Hong Kong in 2007 & River Water Quality in Hong Kong in
2007)
To deal with environmental problems in the lower reaches of

watercourses and drains, the Government also needs to provide sewers
for collection and disposal of wastewater. Hence, the EPD has divided
Hong Kong into 16 zones for sewerage master plans (SMPs). The
SMPs are blueprints of infrastructure required for the management of
polluted waters and are developed on a catchment-by-catchment basis
(Fig. 9.2). In this unit, we discuss the theories and practices of handling
wastewater, in contrast to those of handling freshwater supplies. The
Harbour Areas Treatment Scheme (HATS) [formerly known as the
Strategic Sewage Disposal Scheme (SSDS)] are also introduced, to lead
you through the evolution of local concepts in water management.
Figure 9.2 The catchment area of various sewerage master plans under review
by the EPD (http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english
/environmentinhk/water/prob_solutions/plan_sewerage.html)
The following websites are useful resources for your study of the Water
Block:
1 The problems of water pollution in Hong Kong and relevant

regulatory activities:
http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/water/hkwqrc/
overview/index.html
2 The problems of local drinking water supplies and potable water

quality (including the quality of drinking water and quality of
raw water from the Dongjiang): https://www.wsd.gov.hk/en/core-
businesses/water-quality/my-drinking-water-quality/index.html
3 The policies and control of water quality in the USEPA: https://

www.epa.gov/standards-water-body-health
4 International journals and current news in water and wastewater:

https://www.epa.gov/standards-water-body-health
Unit 9 5
Specifically, this unit:
• describes the requirements of setting water quality standards and

interpretations on the possible trends of water quality.
• demonstrates the knowledge of the effects from the effluent of a

wastewater plant and the appropriate treatment options for different
types of pollutant.
• describes the theory of physical treatment processes and the

limitations of these processes.
• explains the theory and principles of chemical treatment processes

and related applications.
• describes different biological treatment options and the basic design

calculations.
Water and wastewater quality

requirements
To assess whether water quality is acceptable for water supplies,
environmental protection, conservation or other reasons, the setting of
standards is required. Presently, two primary approaches, the WQOs
approach and the effluent standards approach, are used. The WQOs
approach is based on the beneficial uses of receiving-water (such as
watercourses and coastal waters) with an aim to provide threshold
values for protection of these beneficial uses. Therefore, the WQOs
approach does not emphasize the concentration of specific water
parameters at the discharge point. Rather, it focuses on the possible
influences to water bodies and their supporting organisms. In contrast,
the effluent standards approach emphasizes the concentration of
pollutants emitted by a specific discharge point (e.g. the drain of a
factory or the sewer of a village house). This approach highlights the
level of emission and specifies the degree of treatment required for a
discharge point.
No matter which approach is used, policymakers tend to set water

quality requirements for their overall evaluation of the physical,
chemical and biological changes in the water system. By collecting data
on specific water quality parameters, normally by regular monitoring
programmes or by ad hoc surveys, the overall situation of our
environment can be understood concisely and assessed scientifically. In
the following section of this unit, we study the characteristics of various
water quality parameters and discuss their significance on the design of
treatment processes, development of environmental control strategies
and formulation of policies and legislation.
Now, let us go through the major water quality parameters commonly

used by scientists, policymakers, water engineers and environmental
protection officials.
Physical water quality parameters

The physical parameters commonly used by professionals in water
include: colour, taste and odour, turbidity, solid content, temperature
and conductivity.
Colour
Colour, to a certain extent, indicates the gut feelings of the general

public about water pollution. Therefore, it is significant to water
engineers for the aesthetic effects and as an indication of impurities
in treatment processes. Colour in water may result from the presence
of natural material such as iron and manganese, humus and peat
materials, plankton, and weeds or synthetic materials such as industrial
wastes. Colour can generally be divided into two categories: ‘true’ and
‘apparent’. In practice, true colour means the colour of water from
Unit 9 7
which the turbidity has been removed. Apparent colour includes not
only colour due to substances in solution, but also that due to suspended
matter. Apparent colour can be determined on the original sample
without filtration or centrifugation.
Taste and odour
Taste and odour in water often come from volatile chemicals and
decomposing organic matter. The Water Supplies Department of Hong
Kong attributes the highest portion of complaints of drinking water
quality in Hong Kong to taste. Generally, when water has a high level
of dissolved oxygen, which is essential to the physiological processes
of all organisms in the body of water (as you learned in the biological
modules of S122 and S204), the problem of odour can be reduced
because of the prevention of anaerobic decomposition (which normally
generates the bad-smelling H2S). For water scientists, odour can be
measured as a unit of threshold odour number, which represents ‘the
greatest dilution of a sample with odour-free water that still yields a
just-detectable odor’.
Turbidity
Turbidity is the more scientific unit for indicating the clarity of water.
The causes of increased turbidity in water include suspended matter
(such as clay, slit, finely divided organic and inorganic matter), soluble
and coloured organic compounds, and microscopic organisms including
fungi and plankton. Scientifically defined, turbidity is an expression
of the optical property that causes light to be scattered and absorbed
rather than transmitted in straight lines through the sample. The unit
for turbidity is Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU). For example, a
turbid river water sample collected from the Shing Mun River could
have 5,000–10,000 NTU. Visually turbid water has at least 10 NTU,
whereas ‘non-turbid water’, desired by the general public, may have
NTU < 5. Theoretically, the higher the turbidity, the higher the number
of suspended particles in water.
The colloidal particles within our pipe water are of great concern.
Colloids are very small, fine solids (particles that do not dissolve) that
remain dispersed in a liquid for a long time due to their small size and
electrical charge. When most of the particles in water have a negative
electrical charge, they tend to repel each other. This repulsion prevents
the particles from clumping, becoming heavier, and settling out. For
water engineers to reduce them implies an increase in the cost of
the filtration process. In other words, the colloidal particles in water
will shorten the lifespan of filtres and should be reduced by frequent
cleansing of the pipes and filtres.
As turbidity is often associated with increased content of

microorganisms in water, this parameter is significant to drinking water
supplies because of the general concern over appearance of pathogens
in potable water.
Solid content
Chemists tell us that water is the most powerful solvent in nature. In

water and environmental practices, solids content is matter suspended or
dissolved in water or wastewater. Similar to turbidity, the dissolved and
suspended solid contents in water are indicators of the quality of influent
and effluent in the treatment process. Water with a high percentage of
dissolved solids generally is of inferior palatability and may induce an
unfavorable physiological response in consumers. Internationally, 500
mg of dissolved solids/L is the desirable lowest limit for drinking water.
According to statistical data of the Water Supplies Department of Hong
Kong (WSD), the average content of dissolved solids in the pipe water
of Hong Kong is about 100 mg/L.
Temperature
As you may have studied in the chemistry module of S122, temperature

affects the reaction kinetics and so significantly affects the physical,
chemical and biological processes in bodies of water. Generally,
increased temperature increases the rate of chemical reactions and the
rate of evaporation and volatilization of substances from the water. The
growth rate of aquatic organisms is also increased with temperature,
leading to increased water turbidity and algal blooms. Nonetheless,
when water temperature increases, the solubility of gases such as O2,
CO2 and N2 would decrease. Therefore, measurement of temperature
often provides the necessary reference of the extent of physical,
chemistry and biological reactions in bodies of water.
Conductivity
As you learned in fundamental physics courses, the conductivity of a

solution is a measure of its ability to carry an electrical current that is
due to the presence of dissolved salts in water, and it can be correlated
with total solids. In water, electrical current is conveyed by the
dissolved ions (you should note that only ions could carry a current!).
Increases in conductivity imply that there are proportional increases in
dissolved ions in a solution, and so in a natural body of water.
Chemical water quality parameters

The chemical water quality parameters commonly used by water and
environmental professionals include Dissolved oxygen, BOD, COD,
TOC, acidity and alkalinity, hardness, toxic substances, inorganic
pollutants and organic pollutants.
Dissolved oxygen
Dissolved oxygen (DO) is the amount of oxygen dissolved in river

water, marine water and wastewater. As you learned in the foundational
biology modules in S122, oxygen is the essential element for
respiration and other physiological activities. It is also the end product
Unit 9 9
of photosynthesis. Since dissolved oxygen is essential for supporting

aquatic life, this parameter is important for indicating the quality of
water from an ecological point of view. Undoubtedly, a high DO reflects
the fact that aquatic life can be well supported. From another angle,
since most decomposition processes by microorganisms consume
oxygen, a low DO usually indicates that a huge amount of organic
matter (roughly equal to organic pollutants) in water, and the activities
of microorganisms are extensive.
The dissolution of oxygen may be affected by many factors, including

temperature (which affects the solubility of oxygen), speed of flowing
water (the higher the water flow, the higher the amount of oxygen being
dissolved), light (which affects the productivity of phytoplankton) and
the physiological activities of aquatic and littoral organisms (e.g. the
respiration and photosynthetic rates of water plants). Over-saturated
condition (90–120% saturation) DO may not be a good sign for water,
because this may be caused by overgrowth of algae as a result of
nutrients (e.g. nitrogenous compounds and phosphorus) enrichment.
Scientifically, over-saturation of DO by algal bloom is eutrophication.
If the body of water is signified by the growth of pink, red or reddish
brown micro-algae, and oxygen is used up at nighttime by the
respiratory action of these offensive algae, we call the phenomenon ‘red
tide’. In Hong Kong, Inner Tolo Harbour is often affected by red tides,
and the occurrence of red tide may result in extensive fish kill in Fish
Culture Zones due to anoxia (short of oxygen in water).
Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)
In Section 3 of T237, we studied the meaning and measurement of

oxygen demands. As you may recall, biochemical oxygen demand
(BOD) is defined as the measured amount of oxygen required by
acclimated microorganisms to biologically degrade the organic matter
in water. Therefore, BOD reflects the number of organic pollutants that
can deplete the dissolved oxygen in water.
BOD is an important parameter in water monitoring and water and

wastewater treatment. As specified in the Technical Memorandum of the
WPCO, discharges from premises including the wastewater treatment
plant should meet the specific requirement of BOD to achieve the
various WQOs of a Water Control Zone. Practically, the BOD5 value,
which indicates the consumption of oxygen in a bottle of water sample
for incubating in a dark environmental chamber at 20ºC for five days, is
included in nearly all water quality objectives and standards.
The classic method of measuring BOD is to use special bottles with

airtight stoppers. Each bottle is first filled with the test water or dilutions
of the test water. The water is initially aerated to provide a relatively
high level of dissolved oxygen and, if necessary, is seeded with bacteria.
For the standard method, the filled bottles are incubated for five days
at 20ºC (normal room temperature), and the decrease in dissolved
oxygen determined. The unit of BOD5 value (BOD0, BOD10, BOD20….
indicates the biological oxygen consumption for the initial period,
incubated for ten days, incubated for 20 days respectively) is in mg/L
or ppm. Sometimes, dilutions of the tested water sample are necessary,

since the content of organic matter in the original sample may be so
high that there is not enough oxygen in the water sample to completely
decompose them. Further, when the tested water sample is too sterile
without any microorganisms inside, ‘spiking’ small amounts of bacteria
into the tested sample may be necessary.
Since BOD is such an important parameter for water science and

environmental professionals, let us spend some time revisiting the
theories of measurement of BOD (described in the study materials of
T237) and discussing its applications in further detail.
The BOD test
The BOD test may be considered a wet oxidation process in which

the living organisms serve as the medium for oxidation of the organic
matter to carbon dioxide, water, and ammonia. This can be represented
by the following generalized equation:
where
The elements of pollutants oxidized or used as the oxidation agent are:
C: oxidized by O2 and its valence changed from 0 to +4

H: partially by O2, partially by N and its valence changed from 0 to +1
O: used as O2 to take over valence change of +2
N: used as O2 to take over valence change of +3.
Kinetics of reaction
Chemists found that the rate of biochemical oxidation of organic matter

is proportional to the remaining concentration of unoxidized substance
(called Phelps’ Deoxygeneration Law). The oxidizability (L) can be
described as:
where
L = concentration of organic matter expressed in dissolved oxygen (mg/L)

t = time (day)
This is approximate first order kinetics, because the rate of reaction is

proportional to the concentration of the substance there.
Unit 9 11
Thus, where
K is the rate of oxidation, rate constant (day–1)
The kinetic relationships can be understood from the equation
When integrated and rearranged, then
L = L0e–kt or where
L = concentration of unoxidized substance (mg/L) in oxidizability so

that oxidation capacity at time = t
L0 = concentration of unoxidized substance (mg/L) when time (t) = 0 so
complete oxidation capacity
t = time interval (day)
Practically, as BOD is used to measure the oxidizability of a water or

wastewater,
BODt = L0 – L
where
BODt = amount of oxidizable substance consumed (mg/L)
A similar relationship with logarithm to base 10, is
where
k is the decay rate constant using logarithm to base 10, measured under
a variety of conditions, reasonably constant at 0.1 day–1at 20oC.
Example of calculation and applications

Wastewater is rich in carbohydrates. When wastewater is discharged
into a body of water, it affects the water quality parameters such as
BOD, dissolved oxygen and population of microorganism. As discussed
above, deoxygenation of water in a stream by BOD follows first order
kinetics. Try to:
1 Calculate the complete oxidation capacity of a water sample

with data shown in the table below (use graph paper to help your
calculations).
BOD removal rate determinations
Incubation time (day) BOD at 20oC (ppm)

0.6 3
1 5.5
2 10.5
3 12.5
4 18
6 24
8 26
10 31
12 35
14 39
16 39.5
18 40
2 Use the appropriate equation, and plot the data from the above table
in a log-linear graph paper.
From the plot in (2), determine:
a the BOD removal rate constant
b the BOD half-life, i.e. consumption time for half of the BOD
c BOD5 at 20oC.
Unit 9 13
Solution
1 Plot a graph BOD against incubation time:

From the graph, the complete oxidation capacity Lo = 40 ppm
2 Using equation,where
L = oxidation capacity at time t (mg/L)

Lo = complete oxidation capacity, ultimate BOD (mg/L)
t = time period (day)
k = BOD removal rate constant (day–1)
3 Plot a graph of against time

a The slope of the line = = –0.086 day–1

Therefore, BOD removal rate constant, k = 0.086 day–1
b When half of the substance is consumed,
Therefore, days
c From a graph in (1), BOD5 = 19 mg/L when t = 5 days, or from the

equation: y = –0.1305x2 + 4.551x, put x = 5 days, y = 19.5 mg/L
Now, let’s do more practice determining BOD5 in water samples.
Activity 9.1
Assume you are a water scientist working in a consulting company.
Calculate the time for half of the organic matter to degrade in
1 a river water sample
2 a domestic sewage sample
3 a glucose solution
where k = 0.10 for river water, k = 0.17 for domestic sewage and
k = 0.25 for glucose solution.
Chemical oxygen demand
Some organic materials, such as alkaline or other hydrocarbons, are

oxidized slowly by microorganisms. Instead of BOD, the chemical
oxygen demand (COD) values should be determined to indicate the
degradable pollutants content. The COD test normally applies KMnO4
or Na2C12O2/H2SO4 to oxidize a water sample, so that a COD value
can be determined. Each molecule of chemical oxidants consumed is
equivalent to a certain quantity or mass of oxygen.
The differences between COD and BOD values rest on the fact that
NH3 is not oxidized under the incubation conditions of BOD5, so the
oxygen demand in BOD5 does not reflect the demand for decomposing
nitrogen-containing organic matter. Further, when water contains toxic
substances, the BOD test is inhibited. The COD test is a more reliable
method for determining the oxygen demand for decomposing the total
organic matter. Therefore, when the organic matter composes only
biodegradable material and no toxic matter, COD is approximately equal
to ultimate carbonaceous BOD. In practice, however, wastewater often
contains some extents of both non-biodegradable and biodegradable
materials. Hence, the COD value in a wastewater sample is usually
greater than the BOD (ultimate carbonaceous) value.
Unit 9 15
It is not surprising to note that COD is more commonly used by

engineers and policymakers in designing municipal wastewater treatment
plants and formulation of legislation. In Hong Kong, for example, the
effluent standards of municipal wastewater treatment plants as well
as the unit for calculating sewage charge are based on COD rather
than BOD. The COD value is significant for industrial wastewater
studies, discussed in Unit 10. In general, the BOD value of a municipal
wastewater sample is around 50–70% of the COD value, although the
correct figure might still depend on the nature of the wastewater and the
exact amount of organic matter within water samples.
In dayschool 3 of ENVR S335, you may have a chance to apply

potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) for oxidizing organic matter in a
wastewater sample to determine the COD under high temperature and
refluxing for two to three hours. The stoichiometry of this oxidation-
reduction reaction is as below:
CnHaOb + cCr2O72- + 8cH+ → nCO2 + ( ) H2O + 2cCr3+ where
The oxidation is accomplished through reduction of dichromate:
6e- + 14H3O+ + Cr2O72- → 2Cr3+ + 21H2O
As noted, the above COD test is often applied to measure the organic
matter content in wastewater that is harmful for the growth of
microorganisms.
Reading
Pay particular attention to the formula of BOD process and the
methods of determination of BOD rate constants. You should be
aware that the BOD5 test is only a partial measurement of the
oxygen demand for total (or ultimate) carbonaceous materials.
The biological oxygen demand for decomposing nitrogenous
compounds is often omitted in the BOD5 test. To determine the
total BOD for carbonaceous and nitrogenous compounds, BOD20
should be applied.
To finish the sections on BOD and COD, you are invited to work
through the following activity, by applying the concepts you grasped in
the above reading.
Activity 9.2
Assume you are a water scientist employed by the government for
designing water pollution control devices. List the advantages of
applying the COD test over the BOD5 test. Explain in a layperson’s
terms why the value of the COD is usually higher than that of the BOD.
Total organic carbon (TOC)
The organic matter in water and wastewater is composed of a

variety of carbonaceous compounds in various oxidation states.
Some of these carbon compounds can be oxidized by biological or
chemical processes and are represented by the BOD and COD. Some
carbonaceous compounds do not respond to either the BOD or COD
test, so they cannot really be assessed in water quality surveys. Hence, a
measurement of total organic carbon (TOC) is required.
The TOC is a more convenient and direct expression of total organic

content. However, from water scientists’ point of view, the TOC does
not provide the same kind of information as the BOD or COD. Fig. 9.3
shows the schematic relation between BOD, COD and TOC. Simply
stated, TOC indicates the concentration of organic carbon in a water
sample and is the primary parameter to measure the concentration of
organic pollutants. BOD represents the degree of biodegradability of
organic matter, and COD represents the chemically degradable organic
matter.
Figure 9.3 Schematic of the BOD, COD and TOC relationship (Kiely 1998, p. 77)
Acidity and alkalinity
Alkalinity of water is the acid-neutralizing capacity of water. In other

words, it is a measure of water’s capacity to neutralize acids. Alkalinity
is significant in many uses, including the design of coagulation process
in water treatment plants and the assessment of the quality of influent
in chemical and biological treatment processes. Because the alkalinity
of many bodies of surface water is primarily a function of bicarbonates
(HCO3-), carbonates (CO3-), and hydroxide ions (OH-), it is usually
taken by scientists and engineers as an indication of the concentration
of these constituents.
Unit 9 17
The acidity of water is its quantitative capacity to react with a strong

base to a designated pH. In contrast to alkalinity, acidity is a measure
of water’s capacity to neutralize alkaline. The condition of acidity may
indicate the geological condition in the source of water. As a significant
parameter in water supply, acidity contributes to corrosiveness in pipes
and affects the taste and chemical components of drinking water.
Hardness of water
As you learned in high school geography and in the earth science

module of S122, hard water contains significant amounts of calcium
carbonates CaCO3). Hard water requires considerable amounts of soap
to produce foam and can produce scale in hot water pipes, and heaters
in which water temperature is increased materially. Usually, water
hardness is affected by the geological features (e.g. limestone) of the
water source and is expressed as equivalent mg/L of calcium carbonate.
The bicarbonates of calcium and magnesium precipitate insoluble
carbonates when carbon dioxide is driven off by boiling. This kind of
temporary hardness is called carbonate (temporary) hardness. As is
commonly known, sulphates, nitrates of calcium and magnesium cannot
be removed by boiling. These salts cause permanent hardness. The
classification of the hardness of water is shown in Table 9.1.
Table 9.1 Hardness of water (Kiley 1988)
Classification Hardness (mg/L as CaCO3)

Soft 0–75
Moderately hard 75–150
Hard 150–300
Very hard > 300
Example of assessing the level of hardness

Suppose raw water from the Aberdeen Reservoir has the following
composition:
Calcium = 81 mg/L, Magnesium = 32 mg/L, Sodium = 16 mg/L,

Bicarbonate = 255 mg/L, Sulphate = 37 mg/L and Chloride = 80 mg/L
Determine carbonate hardness, noncarbonate hardness, and total

hardness, all by mg/L of CaCO3.
Solution
Step 1
Convert all concentration to mg/L of CaCO3 using the following

equation:
The species concentration in milliequivalents per litre (meq/L) is

computed by:
The species concentration expressed as mg/L of CaCO3 is calculated by:
mg/L as CaCO3 = meq/L of species × 50
Step 2
Ion Molecular Equivalent Concentration

species weight weight mg/L meq/L mg/L as CaCO3
Ca2+ 40 20.0 81 4.05 202.5
Mg2+ 24.3 12.2 32 2.62 131.1
Na2+ 23 23 16 0.7 34.8
Total: 7.37 368.4
61 61 255 4.18 209
Cl– 35.45 35.45 37 1.04 52.2

96.1 48 80 1.67 83.3
Total: 6.89 344.5
Step 3
Compute the hardness distribution:
Total hardness = 202.5 + 131.1 = 333.6 mg/L as CaCO3
Alkalinity (bicarbonate) = 209 mg/L as CaCO3
Carbonate hardness = alkalinity = 230 mg/L as CaCO3
Noncarbonate hardness = 52.2 + 83.3 = 135.5 mg/L as CaCO3

Unit 9 19
Inorganic pollutants in water
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a parameter to indicate sanitary quality. The most common

form of nitrogen in freshly polluted water is organic nitrogen, ammonia
or protein. Later, these nitrogen compounds will oxidize [O] to nitrite
(NO2-) and then nitrate (NO3-).
The free ammonia in water, the reduction of dissolved oxygen during

the oxidation of ammonia to nitrate and the rapid growth of algae from
the high content of nitrate are the most important factors to affect
the ecological health of rivers and seas. It is toxic to fish when the
concentration of free ammonia is greater than 1 mg/L. Ammonia is toxic
to aquatic life.
Phosphorus
The influence of phosphorus is similar to that of nitrogen when it

provides excess nutrients for algae bloom so that the dissolved oxygen
would be used up. The main source is from detergents.
The main cause of eutrophication is sewage pollution, which increases

the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. These are nutrients to most algal
species, resulting in algal blooms.
Now you are invited to study an interesting article on the effect of

nutrient (nitrogenous and phosphorus compounds) enrichment on red
tide, the offensive blooms of algal blooms. From this reading, you may
understand the significance of analysing, monitoring and controlling
inorganic pollutants in water environment. Today, restricting the input of
N and P in water systems is the challenge of water scientists, engineers,
policymakers and government officials.
Reading 9.1
Hodgkiss, I J and Ho, K C (1997) ‘Are changes in N:P ratios
in coastal waters the key to increased red tide blooms?’
Hydrobiologia, 352:141–47.
The paper of Hodgkiss and Ho reviews water quality data collected

from Tolo Harbour, Hong Kong, and evidence documented by experts
from other parts of the world, on the causative factors of red tides. They
concluded that both long-term and short-term changes in the N:P ratios
of coastal waters were accompanied by increased blooms of micro-
algae. The growth of most red tide causative organisms, for example
the dinoflagellates, are favoured by specific ratios of N:P of between
6 and 15. The significance of concentrations of N and P, as well as the

regulatory ratios of N and P, is confirmed. You may be interested in
following Prof. K C Ho for further research in the relationship between
water quality and ecological deterioration. The next part of this unit also
discusses the implications of Professors Hodgkiss and Ho’s finding in
formulating the pollution control strategy and design of Hong Kong’s
advanced sewage treatment plants.
Sulphur
Sulphur commonly exists in water and in human waste. It is also the

major anion in natural water, SO42-. The excess of sulphate ions, SO42-
. larger than 250 mg/L, can cause a cathartic effect on the bowels. Also,
because of the formation of hydrogen sulphide, both odour problems
and high toxicity are important concerns, since they are lethal to
freshwater aquatic fauna such as gammarus pseudolimnaeus, batis
vagans and heaxagenia limbata for larger than 20 ppm v/v. In the
following case, hydrogen sulphide is considered a product of anaerobic
respiration produced at reduced dissolved oxygen levels in aquatic areas
by organic discharges.
SO42- + organic substances → S2- + H2O + CO2

(microbial action)
S2- + H+ HS- + H+ H2S (gas) (pH < 8)
Moreover, hydrogen sulphide can cause corrosion of concrete and

marble and damage buildings and statues. The sequence of chemical
actions is shown below:
SO42- → H2S (gas) → H2S (moisture) → H2SO4 (acid) → chemical

reactions with carbonates and oxidation by Thiobacillus spp. →
corrosion of concrete and marble → damage of buildings and
statues.
Toxic and persistent substances

Besides the above parameters to indicate the total content of organic
materials, and the level of pollution in bodies of water, some organic
and inorganic pollutants that have chronic and acute effects on the
health of organisms, including human beings, should be noted. Mercury
(Hg), pesticides and disinfectants may cause acute effects on health.
Heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), iron
(Fe), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) are known to cause chronic (long-term,
cumulative) toxic effects on health and should be monitoring regularly.
Since the 1980s, there is increased concern with some persistent,
chlorinated compounds such as DDT, PCB, PAH and HCH and organic
Unit 9 21
solvents with aromatic hydrocarbon. Since they are carcinogenic and are
diverse in chemical structure, a lot of legal standards have grouped them
in the general category of ‘toxic substance’, as the TM of the WPCO
does. It is noteworthy that these toxic substances usually occur in
trace amounts that require very sophisticated equipment and analytical
procedures to detect.
Biological water quality parameters

Water sustains life. In an aquatic system, normally there are
algae, littoral plants, submerged plants, fish, shells, shrimp and
microorganisms. Of the various life forms in an aquatic system, humans
are more concerned about microorganisms such as bacteria, because
they are closely related to health. Microorganisms are often brought
into the streams, rivers and nullahs in Hong Kong as a result of natural
flushing or sewage pollution. In order to alert Hong Kong people to the
health hazards of exposure to pathogens, EPD regularly monitors and
discloses the bacteriological water quality in beaches and rivers.
Let us focus on studying two major groups of biological parameters in

water: micro-algae (phytoplankton) and bacteria.
Phytoplankton
Algae, in colonized, filamentous form or in free-floating, unicellular

form, are photosynthetic plants having no roots, stems, or leaves.
They normally contain pigments, including chlorophyll, by which
photosynthesis may be carried out. Due to the rapid multiplication and
aggregation of micro-algae (also known as phytoplankton), water bodies
have characteristic coloration. Algal bloom is a phenomenon in which
the growth of some micro-algal species is suddenly enhanced due to the
change in weather and environmental conditions that favour the growth
of this organism. Eutrophication is an increase in the level of nutrients
(including N and P) and the abrupt production/consumption of oxygen
in the body of water. As discussed in the reading in Hodgkiss and Ho,
blooms of pink or red pigment-containing micro-algae may result in ‘red
tide’. In Hong Kong, eutrophication as a result of increased sewage and
agricultural waste discharges is apparent for some enclosed bays such
as Tolo Harbour and Port Shelter. Organic pollution is a major concern
of government officials as well as fishers and water sport enthusiasts.
Figure 9.4 shows some species of two major groups of phytoplankton,
the diatoms and the dinoflagellates.
Figure 9.4 Phytoplankton under microscopes: (left) a species of dinoflagellate:

Ceratium furca; (right) a species of diatom: Skeletonema costatum.
Total coliform
The coliform bacteria are commonly used as biological indicators

because they are water-borne and are closely related to disease. They
are rod-shaped bacteria and inhabit the intestinal tract of human beings.
According to statistical data, each person discharges 100 to 400 billion
coliform bacteria per day with their fasces. Therefore, the presence
of coliform bacteria in water indicates that it is polluted by sewage.
Since pathogenic organisms such as those causing diarrhea and cholera
also inhabit the intestinal tract of human beings and are of similar
physiological requirements of coliform bacteria, the quantity of coliform
organism in a water sample indicates the degree of water pollution and
the risk of intestinal diseases. According to the WHO Guidelines for
drinking water quality, the quantity of total coliform in a water sample
should not exceed 100 cell mL–1.
E.coli
Escherichia coli (E.coli) is one species of the coliform bacteria. It

occurs consistently in fecal wastes of human beings and is different
from coliform bacteria in general, which includes bacteria originating
from animals (including pigs and poultry). Therefore, E. coli is a more
specific indicator of water quality in reflecting health risk. According
to an epidemiological survey conducted by the EPD, for bathing
beaches in Hong Kong, the presence of 610 E. coli cells in 100 mL of
seawater correlates with 15 swimmers being at risk to intestinal disease,
including diarrhea. When the concentration of E. coli cells in 100 mL
of seawater is between 25 and 180, about ten swimmers are at risk to
intestinal disease. On the basis of the findings of this epidemiological
survey, EPD set the bacteriological standard for bathing beaches and the
objective of protecting coastal water in Water Control Zones
(Table 9.2).
Unit 9 23
Presently, EPD classifies gazetted bathing beaches into four grades:

Good, Fair, Poor and Very Poor. Obviously, beaches of E. coli ≤ 24 per
100 mL are ‘Good’. Beaches having E.coli densities greater than 610
per 100 mL are ranked ‘Very Poor’. The SAR Government reviews
the bacteriological quality of bathing beaches every year and would
consider closing the beaches of continuously very poor water quality.
During swimming season, the Government discloses bacteriological
quality every two weeks. A warning sign (Fig. 9.5) is erected in beaches
that are not suitable for swimming. Details about the bacteriological
standard of bathing beaches, the monitoring scheme, current grading of
beaches and EPD’s regulatory measures can be viewed at: http://www.
epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/water/beach_quality/bwq_
home.html. The trend of bacterial quality in the bathing beaches of
Hong Kong is shown in Figure 9.6.
Table 9.2 Ranking system for beaches
E. coli (cfu/100 mL) WQO compliance Rank

≤ 24 Complied Good
25–180 Fair
180–610 Not complied Poor
> 610 Very Poor
(Beach Water Quality in Hong Kong 2007, EPD, HKSAR, 2007)
Figure 9.5 The sign displaying bacteriological quality and warning messages in
the gazetted beaches of Hong Kong
Figure 9.6 The trend of bacterial quality in the bathing beaches of Hong Kong
over the last 10 years.
Other biological indicators
Aquatic species are usually specific for certain types of pollution since
they are based on the presence or absence of biological indicators,
which are not equally sensitive to all types of pollution. Detection of
all types of organism would be a costly and a time- consuming process.
Therefore, some species or organisms that occur in normal streams and
marine water are selected by scientists as indicator organisms. They are
studied in detail by a well-planned monitoring programme and used for
establishing criteria for the beneficial uses of specified bodies of water.
For example, besides coliform bacteria and E. coli, the most commonly
used biological indicator is bivalves. Due to the filtre-feeding habit of
bivalves, they can accumulate heavy metals and carcinogenic substances
in their body. By assessing the long-term accumulation of pollutants and
the changes of physiological and/or ecological behaviours of selected
indicator organisms (Table 9.3), the long-term trend of water quality can
be interpreted and predicted.
Unit 9 25
Table 9.3 Biological indicators used for various water uses
Water use Indicator organism

Drinking water E.coli and Total coliform
Protozoan, e.g. Giardia spp. and
Cryptosporidium spp.
Swimming pool water Total bacteria count
E.coli
Earth-borne pathogenic bacteria, e.g.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
River water Faecal coliforms and E.coli
Freshwater macro-algae
Water hyacinths
Macro-invertebrates, e.g. mayflies,
stoneflies, leech
Beach water E.coli
Wastewater effluent Faecal coliforms and E.coli
Filamentous fungi
Coastal marine water E. coli
Bivalves, e.g. green-lipped mussel, fan
shell, scallop
Benthos (animals resting on the bottom
sediments)
Before ending this section on the various water quality parameters, I

would like you to do the following activity.
Activity 9.3
Refer to the Beach Water Quality in Hong Kong 2007. Discuss the
following questions with classmates in your tutorial group:
1 What are faecal indicators do the EPD officials referr to?
2 Explain why E. coli is widely used by scientists and government

officials over the world for indicating water quality? What are the
advantages of using it?
Managing potable water and drinking water

quality standards
Water is a basic need of human beings, so the quality of drinking water
should be precisely controlled. Raw water is defined as untreated water
from rivers, underground water or reservoirs. In Hong Kong, raw water
mainly comes from Dongjiang water (from the Mainland) and 17 local
reservoirs. Raw water from Dongjiang counties is our main source of
supply and makes up about 70–80% of Hong Kong’s needs. Under the
current agreement, this will be increased by 10 million m3 a year from
800 million m3 in 2002 to 820 million m3 in 2004. The actual amount of
water received from Guangdong in 2002 was 744 million m3. The rest
of the raw water is rainfall gathered from local catchments.
Drinking water is processed by water treatment works. Raw water is

treated by the Water Supplies Department in Hong Kong. The WHO has
published guidelines for drinking water quality. These include:
• a drinking-water safety framework
• a quality management approach for drinking-water systems from

catchments to tap
• assessment of the health risk presented by
– microorganisms
– chemicals
– radiological constituents
• an explanation of the criteria used to select the various constituents

addressed
• approaches used in deriving Guidelines, including Guideline Values
• explanation on how the Guidelines are intended to be used
• summary statements either supporting the Guidelines recommended,

or explaining why no health-based guideline is required or possible
at the present time.
As the Guidelines include a variety of information, the standard of

drinking water is also introduced. Three aspects of drinking water
quality are: microorganisms, chemicals and radiological constituents.
Microbial aspect
Water can be a very significant source of infectious organisms, but

person-to-person contact, aerosols, and food intake also transmit many
waterborne diseases. Depending on circumstances and on the absence
of water-borne outbreaks, these routes may be more important than
waterborne transmission.
Unit 9 27
Some microorganisms will grow as biofilm on surfaces in contact with

water. With one or two exceptions, such as Legionella, most of these
organisms do not cause illness, but they can cause nuisance through
generation of taste and odour or discolouration of water supplies.
Legionellae survive and multiply in natural fresh water, including lakes,
streams, reservoirs and soil. Therefore, the preferred strategy to ensure
compliance with the guidelines is a management approach that places
the primary emphasis on preventing or reducing the entry of pathogens
to drinking water and on reducing reliance on treatment processes for
removal of pathogens. As far as possible, water sources should be
protected from contamination by human and animal waste, which
can contain a variety of bacterial, viral, and protozoan pathogens and
helminthes parasites.
Chemical aspect
As chemical contaminants are normally associated with adverse health

effects only after long-term exposure, they are considered a lower
priority category than microbial contaminants.
Although short-term exposure will not lead to adverse health problems,

it is often most effective to concentrate the available resources for
remedial action on finding and eliminating the source of contamination,
rather than on installing expensive drinking-water treatment for its
removal. However, only a few chemicals are of immediate health
concern in any given circumstance. Chemical contaminants in drinking
water should be prioritized both for monitoring and for remedial action,
to ensure scarce resources are not unnecessarily directed towards those of
no health concern. For example, arsenic may occur naturally, and excess
exposure to arsenic in drinking water may result in significant cancer
risk. Other naturally occurring chemicals of health concern include
uranium and selenium.
Radiological aspects
The radiological health risk associated with the presence of naturally

occurring radionuclides in drinking water should also be taken into
consideration as part of overall system assessment, although the
contribution of drinking water to total exposure to radionuclides is very
small under normal circumstances. The guideline values recommended
in this volume do not apply to water supplies contaminated during
emergencies arising from accidental release of radioactive substances
into the environment.
Reading 9.2 (online)

Browse the web page https://www.epd.gov.hk/eia/register/
report/eiareport/eia_0782002/ema/section4.htm of Water Supply
Department about the guidelines of maintaining drinking water
quality. Try to figure out what substances should be controlled
for microbial, chemical and radiological aspects, as shown in the
tables of drinking water quality for current period of monitoring.
Hong Kong drinking water standard

As already mentioned, about 80% of Hong Kong’s demand for water is
supplied by the Dongjiang River; the remaining 20% is from rainwater
collected from catchments and stored in reservoirs. The quality of
water is closely monitored once stored in Hong Kong. The water is
fully treated before supply to the public and has intensive monitoring
procedures to ensure quality control and compliance with the Guidelines
of WHO for Drinking Water Quality, established for protection of public
health.
Table 9.4 shows the comparison of quality of water before and after
drinking water treatment in Hong Kong. The quality of drinking water
is greatly improved to meet the three aspects of the WHO Guideline
values for drinking water quality. The microbial aspect is the major
concern, as water can be a very significant source of infectious
organisms. Therefore, the bacteria and microorganism in water are
closely monitored and disinfection methods are used to remove them.
Unit 9 29
Table 9.4 Quality of Dongjiang water and water after treatment in Hong Kong
Quality of Dongjiang
Quality of water
Principal physical water — raw water
after treatment
and chemical in the main stream
(average 2007 to
parameters (average 2007 to
2008)
2008)
pH 7.2 8.5
Temperature (oC) 23.6 24.1
Total copper (mg/L) 0.004 0.003
Fluoride (mg/L) 0.21 0.49
Selenium (mg/L) <0.001 <0.001
Manganese (mg/L) 0.04 <0.01
Chloride (mg/L) 7 9
Nitrate (mg/L) 1.5 4.3
Lead (mg/L) <0.003 <0.003
Cyanide (mg/L) <0.01 <0.01
Total coliforms 1000 (number/L) 0 (number/100mL)
Source: http://www.info.gov.hk/wsd/en/html/water/dongjiang.htm, 2007
Is our water safe for drinking?

Before ending this section on managing drinking water resources, we
recommend you read the following article related to the quality of our
water resource (the Dongjiang). The relevant research was done by a
group of OUHK students who graduated in 2000–03, and coordinated
by Prof. K C Ho. You should be particularly interested to note the
chemical and bacteriological quality with reference to state, local and
international standards, the design of relevant monitoring programmes
and the analytical methods applied. In the future, you may have a
chance to follow Prof. K C Ho to visit the catchment of the Dongjiang
and the reservoirs in Hong Kong. From the site visit, you can gain first-
hand knowledge on the present status and think deeply about the future
management strategy of our tiny water resource.
Reading 9.3
Ho, K C, Chow, Y L and Yau, J T S (2003) ‘Chemical and
microbiological qualities of the East River (Dongjiang) water,
with particular reference to drinking water supply in Hong
Kong’, Chemosphere, 52:1441–50.
Wastewater characteristics and

required standards
Hong Kong waters are divided into ten Water Control Zones. Each
Water Control Zone has a specific set of WQOs, which the EPD aims
to achieve and maintain. Figure 9.7 shows designated water control
zones under the WPCO. For details of the ordinance, you may also
visit the website of the EPD at http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/
environmentinhk/water/guide_ref/guide_wpc_wpco.html
Figure 9.7 Water Control Zones in Hong Kong (A Guide to the Water Pollution
Control Ordinance, EPD, 2007)
All discharge into any drainage or sewerage systems, or inland or

coastal waters, or into the ground within a Water Control Zone are
controlled under the WPCO, except the discharge of domestic sewage
into foul sewers or the discharge of unpolluted water into storm drains
or into the waters of Hong Kong, to have a licence from the EPD. In
setting licence conditions, the EPD follows a set of effluent standards
in a Technical Memorandum (TM). The TM sets out the limits that
make effluents acceptable into foul sewers, storm water drains, inland
and coastal waters. Tables 1 and 2 of the TM on standards for effluents
discharged into foul sewers connected to Government sewage treatment
plants are in Appendix 1. The actual standards to be complied with
depend on the area in which the discharge is made and whether the
discharge is to a foul sewer or to surface water. The EPD is responsible
for the enforcement of licence conditions. You should note that the
Unit 9 31
effluent standards specify the quality to be achieved in treatment of

wastewater. Effluent standards for wastewater discharged into foul
sewers ensure that hazardous wastes do not interfere with Government
domestic wastewater treatment plants
You should note that Water Quality Index (WQI) indicates organic
pollution in a river and reflects the ability of the river to support
aquatic life. It is calculated based on three parameters: DO, BOD5 and
ammonia-nitrogen. Using the system, a river is graded as ‘excellent’,
‘good’, ‘fair’, ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’. For example, in 2007, 85% of the
river monitoring stations attained a ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ (WQI) grading,
showing a slight increase of 2% compared with 2006, as shown in
Figure 9.8.
Figure 9.8 WQI of inland waters of Hong Kong from 1986 to 2007 (River Water
Quality in Hong Kong 2007, EPD)
Water treatment
Physical treatment processes

Physical treatment processes depend mainly on purely physical
characteristics of the impurities to be removed, and it is the primary
part and simplest way of a treatment process. Thus, it is the first step
of water and wastewater treatment processes, including screening,
grit removal and settling. Effective and suitable physical treatment
processes can lower the workload of the treatment plant and avoid
the contamination for the chemical and biological processes as well
as protect equipment such as pumping, and piping from the damage
of large object. Figure 9.9 shows a process flow diagram of a typical
surface water treatment plant.
Lake, River
Screening Coagulation Sedimentation
/ Reservoir
Physical Chemical Physical
Customers Storage Disinfections Filtration
Chemical Physical
Figure 9.9 Flow diagram of water treatment plant (Y H Yau & Associates)
Screening and physical sedimentation
Raw water comes either directly from a lake or river, or from the
impounding reservoir going through pipes by gravity or via pumps to
the treatment works. Screens remove larger items, such as fish, sticks,
and leaves. In order to enable large quantities of water to be treated
efficiently in the treatment plant, chemical should be added to the
incoming water to coagulate/flocculate the small particles into larger
ones, which can then be settled out in sedimentation tanks or removed
directly in filtres. You should be aware that only raw water with low
turbidity can be treated by plain sedimentation (no chemicals) to
remove larger particles and then by filtration to remove the few particles
that failed to settle out. Following filtration and before it flows into
the storage reservoir, the water is disinfected, usually with chlorine.
Fluoride may also be added because of its ability to retard tooth decay.
Treated water is then pumped into the distribution system to serve
customers.
For example, there are 21 water treatment works in Hong Kong and
a total output capacity of 4.8 million m3 per day. During the water
treatment process, raw water (untreated water) is dosed with chemicals
for mixing and then passes to the clarifiers where coagulation and
flocculation of the impurities in the water take place (see Figure 9.10).
The water goes from the clarifiers to the sand filtres for removal of
the more finely divided suspensions. The filtered water passes into
Unit 9 33
contact tanks where dosed chlorine and lime are added to disinfect and
control the alkalinity of the final treated water. Fluoride is also added
to minimize the risk of dental decay. After the treatment processes,
the water is pumped into a system of water mains, stored in service
reservoirs and then supplied to the public.
Figure 9.10 Water treatment process (http://www.info.gov.hk/wsd/en/html/water/

treatment.htm)
Similar to Figure 9.9 above, the suspended and dissolved contaminants

in wastewater may also be removed physically, converted biologically,
or changed chemically. The basic components that accomplish all of
this in a municipal wastewater treatment plant are shown in Figure
9.11. First, coarse solids such as rags, sticks, boards, and other large
objects are retained on coarse screens with 100- to 150-mm openings
when necessary to protect small pumps. However, small solids may
still be in suspension, and the settleable portion of these should be
removed and concentrated in the primary gravity settling tanks. The
concentrated solids, called raw sludge, are then pumped to an anaerobic
digester for biological decomposition and the clarified primary settling
tank effluent flows to the secondary treatment units, which consist of
(1) an aerobic biological oxidation unit where the organic matter in the
wastewater provides food for micro organisms, which then convert the
organics to CO2 and H2O, and (2) a final gravity settling tank where
the microorganisms are settled out. Part of this concentrated biological
sludge is returned to ‘reseed’ the aerobic oxidation unit, but most,
after further thickening, goes to the anaerobic digester. The last stage
in treatment of wastewater is disinfection of the plant effluent before
discharge to the receiving water.

Figure 9.11 Process flow diagram of municipal wastewater treatment plant
The quality of water treated in Water Supplies Department (WSD)

treatment works is as good as that of many well-developed countries
and regions. We can drink tap water without boiling, on condition that
the management of your building is done properly.
When water is delivered to consumers’ taps through inside plumbing,

the quality may not be the same as that produced by the treatment
works. The reason is that unlined galvanized pipes were widely used in
Hong Kong in the past. These pipes began to corrode after being in use
for several years. Sometimes, discoloured water results after it has been
stagnant inside the pipe for a certain period.
Since 23 December 1995, the use of unlined galvanized pipes has been
prohibited. To avoid corrosion of pipes, other pipe materials such as
lined galvanized steel pipes, copper pipes, stainless steel pipes and
polyethylene pipes are recommended.
The maintenance of water storage tanks is also very important.

Therefore, you should monitor the management office of your building
to make sure that they regularly clean the water storage tanks and
maintain the water supply system in good condition. If you have doubts
about the cleanliness of the supply system in your building, you should
consider boiling water for drinking.
In Hong Kong, the treated water, which is soft, is left with a small
amount of minerals even if it looks clear. If you do not wash the
electric kettle after frequent use, sometimes you see that sediments of
minerals are left and accumulate in your electric kettle. Minerals left
in your kettle are mainly calcium salts, trace amounts of which will
not adversely affect water quality or health. This phenomenon is more
common in other countries using hard water. We can simply use lemon
juice to remove the minerals that have accumulated in an electric kettle.
Unit 9 35
Direct dilution
Dilution is a direct method to reduce the concentration of pollutants in

the waste stream with other waste streams. The technical background is
to mix the waste stream with a large proportion of process water or less
contaminated water thoroughly, so that the amount of pollutant would
be diluted to meet the discharge limit (see Figure 9.12).

Figure 9.12 Direct dilution
In general, the concentration of pollutants will significantly decrease

after direct dilution. However, the concentration may still be over
the discharge limit for high toxicity pollutants, e.g. heavy metals and
organic dye. Environmental engineers need to calculate the dilution
capacity in the design stage of water/wastewater treatment plants. The
dilution capacity of a stream can be calculated using the principles of
mass balance.
QiCi + QwCw = QeCe where Q is the volumetric flow rate, C represents

the concentration of the selected material, and the subscripts i, w and e
designate process water, waste stream, and mixture conditions.
Example
A food manufacturer discharges its liquid waste into a river, as shown
in the figure below. The concentration of BOD in the river at point A
is 5mg/L, and the flow rate is 10m3/s. The concentration of BOD in the
waste stream is 200 mg/L, and the flow rate is 2m3/s. The EPD has set
a maximum limit of 20 mg/L BOD in the river. Assume that complete
mixing occurs in the river. Will the manufacture be able to discharge the
waste without treatment?

Solution
Step 1: Perform a mass balance between points A and B
Mass in = Mass out
Qi,ACi,A + QwCw = Qe,BCe,B

Since Qe,B is the sum of the other two flows
Step 2: Plug in the values and calculate the value of Ce,B
= 37.5 mg/L
Therefore, treatment is required.
Sedimentation
Sedimentation is the most common and widely used method in water
and wastewater treatment. It uses gravity settling to remove particles
from water. Both of them will fall to the ground, although the feather
will fall more slowly because it is influenced to a greater extent by air
resistance. Many objects fall similarly when dropped into liquid.
The mechanism of sedimentation is to let water containing particulate

matter flow slowly into a settling tank. The particles start to settle to
the bottom of the tank, due to gravitational force. After a certain time,
which can be determined by the particle size, since most of particles
settle, the clarified water leaves the tank over a weir at the outlet
end. Particles settled on the bottom are removed manually or with
mechanical scrapers. Then, the particles, depending on the nature and
characteristics, are discharged to the sewer, returned to the source, or
treated as waste.
In wastewater treatment plants, sedimentation is commonly used in after

screening, called primary sedimentation, and aerobic oxidation, called
secondary sedimentation. During the primary sedimentation, the settable
solids in suspension can be settled and concentrated as raw sludge.
The raw sludge would pass to an anaerobic digester for biological
decomposition.
Principles of sedimentation
As introduced in Unit 4, settling is the simplest and most traditional

technique to separate particles from a fluid. Figure 9.13 shows the forces
acting on a particle settling in a quiescent fluid under the influence of
gravity. According to Newton’s second law of motion, the resultant
force acting on the particle is:
Unit 9 37
Resultant forces (FR) = Gravity force (FE) – Buoyancy force (FB) – Drag
force (FD), expressed as:
FR = 0 when terminal velocity is reached
FE = Mg
where
M = mass of particle (kg)

g = gravitational acceleration of particle (m/s2)
ρ = air density (kg/m3)
ρp = fluid density (kg/m3)
CD = coefficient of drag
Ap = cross-sectional area of particle (m2)
u = settling velocity of particle (m/s)

Figure 9.13 Forces acting on a particle settling in a quiescent fluid
The drag force increases with increasing speed and is zero for zero
speed. If the particle starts from rest, its initial velocity is zero, so the
drag force in this equation is initially zero. The particle accelerates
rapidly; as it accelerates, the drag force increases as the velocity
increase, until it equals the gravity force minus the buoyancy force.
After the terminal settling is reached, the resultant force acting is zero.
Therefore, the particle continues to move at a constant velocity, and so
solving for ut, we get

It is clear from the equation that if the particle density is lower than
that of the liquid phase, the density difference ρp – ρ will be negative.
This implies that the particle will move a velocity ut towards the surface
of the liquid, in the opposite direction to that in which the force of
gravity acts. Therefore, the rate of sedimentation can be influenced by
varying the parameter in the above equation. These principles are used
in the design of sedimentation tanks for treatment of wastewater, so
that particles having density greater than that of the liquid will tend to
settle, and those with a lower density will tend to rise. The objective
of treatment by sedimentation is to remove readily settleable solids
and floating material and thus reduce the suspended-solids content (see
Figure 9.14).
Activity 9.4
The equation shows that the sedimentation of a
particle is determined by the physical characteristics of the particle

and the liquid phase. Can you describe the opportunities for improving
sedimentation rate?
Figure 9.14 Settling of discrete particles in an ideal rectangular sedimentation

tank (Henry and Heinke 1996)
In the following section, we look at some technical terms that are used
to describe the treatment process.
Unit 9 39
Retention time
The retention time that the wastewater would remain in the tank is
obtained by
where
V = volume of the sedimentation tank (m3) with length L, breadth B and

height H (m)
Q = flow rate of the wastewater that leaving the sedimentation tank (m3/s)
Diameter of the particle
Within this retention time t, particles with a diameter equal to or greater

than dp must have time to fall to the bottom of the tank. The time
required is
where
H = height of the sedimentation tank (m)

ut = sedimentation velocity (m/s)
The equations and can be equated, rearranging the
parameters, then Q = utBL.
Activity 9.5
Can you drawn conclusions from the above equation Q = utBL? In order
to achieve a better sedimentation effect, is it possible to modify the
sedimentation tank by inserting plates into the tank? If it is possible,
please comment.
Screening
Screening is also considered part of the preliminary treatment process. It
removes large floating and suspended materials from the flow to protect
the main treatment processes from possible damage of pumps and other
mechanical equipment and to prevent clogging of pipelines.
Screens are often used to provide protection against the entry of large
objects. The elements of screens may be made of parallel wire mesh,
bars, rods or wires, grating, or perforated plates; the openings may be of
any shape. The size classification of screens can be divided into coarse
and fine. Coarse screens, which consist of vertical bars spaced about
25 mm, are used for pretreatment at the intake point to exclude larger
objects (see Figure 9.15).
The screen used in the

preliminary treatment
is designed to remove
only fairly large
suspended solids, i.e.
larger than 30 mm in
diameter.
Figure 9.15 Bar rack (Wastewater Treatment Plant at Palm Spring in Yuen Long)
Solids retained by bar racks are usually removed by manual raking in

small wastewater treatment plants. Fine screens such as bar screens
should be mechanically cleaned on a continual basis. These screens
consist of wire mesh spaced about 6 mm (See Figure 9.16).
Figure 9.16 Mechanically cleaned bar screen (Wastewater Treatment Plant at

Palm Spring in Yuen Long)
Unit 9 41
Calculating the head loss through screens
In bar racks
Head loss through bar racks will depend on the degree of clogging, and
are a function of approach velocity and velocity through the bars. The
head loss through the bar racks can be estimated using the following
equation:
where
hL = head loss (m)

V = velocity of flow through the openings of the bar rack (m/s)
v = approach velocity in upstream channel (m/s)
g = acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)
You should note that the head loss increases with the degree of clogging.
The head loss calculated using the above equation applies only when
the bar racks are cleaned.
Bar screens
The head loss through bar screens may be calculated by means of the
common orifice formula:
where
hL = head loss (m)

C = coefficient of discharge for the screen
g = acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)
Q = discharge through screen (m3/s)
A = effective open area of submerged screen (m2)
The head loss is determined by the size and amount of solids in

wastewater, the size of the apertures and the method and frequency
of cleaning of the screens. You should note that the screens should be
cleaned continuously, on a timed basis, or on the development of a
specified head loss.
Activity 9.6
Can you suggest some reasons why multiple units of mechanically
cleaned screens and manually cleaned screens are provided in the
preliminary treatment system, as shown in Figure 9.16?
Filtration
As shown in Figure 9.13, filtration is one of the principle unit operations
used in the treatment of surface water. In practice, filtration is also used
extensively for removing suspended solids from wastewater effluents of
biological and chemical treatment processes. In reading Section 11.5.2
of the set text, you should pay particular attention to the fact that there
are two basic types of filtre currently used: slow sand filtres, and rapid
sand filtres.
In the following reading you should pay particular attention to the fact
that there is two basic types of filtres are currently used: the slow sand
filtres and the rapid sand filtres.
Slow sand filtres
These filtres are constructed of fine sand with an effective size of about
0.2 mm. This small size results in virtually all suspended material being
removed at the filtre surface, and addition of coagulants is often not
necessary. In general, these filtres are useful for river or lake water, and
generally are not found alongside sedimentation tanks.
Rapid sand filtres
The rapid sand filtre uses a bed of silica sand ranging from 0.6 to 0.75 m
in depth, and an effective size from 0.45 to 0.55 mm. It often operates in
conjunction with coagulants. Rapid sand filtres are the most commonly
used in Hong Kong, although pressure filtres are also found in some
industrial applications and swimming pool systems.
Particle-removal mechanisms
Filtration is a process in which water passes through a filtre bed made

originally of fine sand over a layer of supporting gravel. Mechanisms
involved in filtration include straining the particles larger than the pore
openings; flocculation, which occurs when the particles are brought
into closer contact within the filtre; and sedimentation of the particles
in the pores of the filtre. The major removal mechanisms include (a)
interception, (b) sedimentation, (c) straining, and (d) adhesion. They are
illustrated in Figure 9.17.
a Removal of suspended particulate matter by interception: In this process,

the particle, by chance, comes close enough to the filtre surface for
adsorption to take place.
Unit 9 43
b Removal of suspended particulate matter by sedimentation: Here, the

particle is deflected from the path of the water flow by the action of gravity
so that it comes into contact with the filtre material.
c Removal of suspended particulate matter by straining: This occurs when

the particles smaller than the pore space are trapped within the filtre by
chance contact.
d Removal of suspended particulate matter by adhesion: The particles

become attached to the surface of the filtering medium as they pass by.
Figure 9.17 Removal of suspended particulate matter within a granular filtre
(a) by interception, (b) by sedimentation, (c) by diffusion, or (e) by
adhesion (Tchobanoglous and Burton 1991)
You should note that the effectiveness of interception and sedimentation

increases with increase in particle size, whereas the effectiveness of
diffusion increases with a decrease in particle size. From this, it can be
deduced that although a filtre can remove large particles by interception
and sedimentation, and small particles by diffusion, there is likely to
be an intermediate size of particle that will not be easily removed. For
most filtres, this size is about 1 μm.
Gas and heat transfer

The transfer of gases into and out of liquids is an important part of
the transport process. For example, the replenishment of oxygen
lost to bacteria degradation or organic waste is accomplished by the
transfer of oxygen from the air into the water. The aeration of water
and wastewater to remove odours, and the aeration of wastewater for
biological processes are other examples. The transfer rate in aeration
system is also a function of temperature. Therefore, knowledge of the
principles of gas and heat transfer is essential to understanding these
processes.
Gas transfer
Consider a closed system containing liquid and gas, as shown in

Figure 9.18. At the beginning, the liquid is pure with respect to the gas.
After that, gas molecules start to diffuse across the gas-liquid interface
and then dissolve into the liquid. This transport phenomenon is called
absorption. At the same time, some gas molecules will also leave the
liquid phase and then return to the gas phase. This phenomenon is called
desorption. However, the net movement will be toward the liquid until
an equilibrium state is reached. At that time, the adsorption rate is equal
to the desorption rate, so that the number of gas molecules leaving the
liquid will be exactly equal to the number of gas molecules entering the
liquid, because the liquid is saturated with the gas.

Figure 9.18 Gas-liquid contact with gas transfer between the phases.
In practice, solutions occurring in water and wastewater treatment are

often dilute mixtures, so that the solubility of a gas in equilibrium with a
liquid can be quantified by Henry’s law. It is expressed mathematically
by:
PB = XBKH(A, B) where
PB = Partial pressure of solute B in the gas

KH(A, B) = Henry’s constant, which depends on the properties of both
the gas B and solvent A
XB = mole fraction of B in the solution
Unit 9 45
where nB and nl is the number of moles of gas B and

solvent A respectively.
Similarly, if the system as shown in Figure 9.18 is occupied by a

mixture of gases, each gas will also have its own equilibrium mole
fraction in the solvent. According to Dalton’s law of partial pressures,
the total pressure, Ptotal is the sum of the partial pressures exerted by
each component. Itt is stated as:
Ptotal = where Pi is the partial pressure of gas i in the mixture.
Activity 9.7
Can you explain the relationship of Henry’s constant with the
temperature of a body of water?
Although the total dissolved material also affects the solubility, the
effect is insignificant in the range of dissolved material usually found in
fresh water. To be precise, the partial pressure of water vapor must be
accounted for in the above equation.
Example
Can you determine the solubility of oxygen in Victoria Harbour at 20oC
and 1 atm pressure, if other dissolved material is negligible?
Solution
Step 1
From Table 6.2, Section 6.4.2 of the text, Henry’s constant for O2 at
20oC is equal to, KH = 4.01×104/mol fraction.
At 1 atm, the mole fraction of oxygen ( ) in Victoria Harbour can be

calculated by
where and is the number of moles of oxygen
and water.
Step 2
1 L of sea water contains , and
Step 3
The solubility of oxygen is
Transfer rate
The rate of gas transfer is governed by several factors. It is

mathematically expressed as follows:
where
= the instantaneous rate of change of the concentration of gas in

the liquid
Cequil and Cactual = the equilibrium concentration and the actual

concentration, respectively
ka = rate constant
The following reading outlines in more detail the equation for the
kinetic of gas-liquid transfer.
Activity 9.8
Based on equation , can you develop an

expression that can be used to estimate the ka value from the wastewater
treatment process?
Unit 9 47
Heat transfer
From previous sections of heat transfer in Units 2 and 6, you should

understand that bodies of water can lose and gain heat much more
slowly than land or air masses; therefore, water temperature is generally
constant in different seasons. In Hong Kong, heat transfer in reservoirs,
lakes or even sedimentation tanks of municipal wastewater treatment
plants where the winds and currents are insufficient to mix the water,
is controlled by a phenomenon known as thermal stratification. For
example, during warm seasons, water divides into an upper layer of
warm, circulating water known as the epilimnion and a lower layer of
cool, relatively undisturbed water known as the hypolimnion. These two
layers are separated by the metalimnion (thermocline), a region of sharp
thermal gradient. This stratification is shown in Figure 9.19.
Figure 9.19 Thermal stratification of a reservoir
Thermal stratification influences water quality such as conductivity,

dissociation constants, solubility, and corrosion potential. The epilimnion
can support abundant algal growth, whereas the hypolimnion decreases
in dissolved oxygen content.
Activity 9.9
As introduced in this section, the nature and extent of stratification
varies with seasonal variations in temperature. Imagine that the thermal
stratification of the Pok Fu Lam Reservoir is shown in the following
figure. Describe the temperature profiles of the reservoir.
Chemical treatment processes

In general, chemical treatment process is the secondary part in water
and wastewater treatments. As shown in Figure 9.10, it is an effective
treatment to further increase the quality of water after preliminary
treatment systems, which includes pH adjustment, coagulation,
softening and disinfection.
Overview of chemical conversion

The various chemical reactions that occur in water and wastewater
treatment could be considered to occur in dilution solutions. The
basic principles of chemical equilibria are also discussed along with
some relevant aspects of water chemistry. The discussion serves as
an introduction to the more important principles that are required as
background to the study of a range of problems in water and wastewater
treatment.
Principles of chemical equilibrium
Consider a reaction from reactants, A and B, to products, C and D:
A+B C+D
The double-sided arrow indicates A and B will form C and D and vice
versa, which is a reversible equilibrium in the conditions of the reaction
temperature, pressure and concentration. The concentration of each
substance is controlled by the overall stability of the reactants and
products. The relation can be described mathematically by equilibrium
constant, Keq.
where
[A], [B], [C], and [D] are the molar concentration of A, B, C and D
respectively.
The constant value of Keq implies that for any reaction mixture, the
concentrations must be in the appropriate ratios.
Unit 9 49
Example
Ammonium ions exits in equilibrium with ammonia in leachate:
NH3 + H2O NH4+ + OH–
The equilibrium value is given by:
The value of Keq can be modified to include the concentration of water:
, where Keq' = 1.7×10–5
From the above expression, as only NH3 can be displaced from a

solution, the higher the concentration of hydroxide ions in the solution,
the greater the ratio of [NH3] to [NH4+] and the more effective the
ammonia loss. In Hong Kong, a pH of 11 is often used for ammonia
stripping in landfill wastewater treatment, because the solution will
contain NH3 as a dissolved gas. You should be aware that similar
principles can be applied to processes like hydrogen sulphide and
hydrogen cyanide evolution.
Dissociation constant
An acid a molecule, which can dissociate to give protons:
HA H+ + A–
The equilibrium constant is referred to as the ionization or dissociation

constant Ka.
Strong acids such as HCl, H2SO4, HNO3 and HClO4 are almost
completely dissociated, and the value of Ka is very large. Other acids
are only partially dissociated in water, the value of Ka is small, and they
are referred to as week acids.
Chemical precipitation
In water and wastewater treatment, reactions may proceed to form

insoluble products. For example, alum (aluminum sulphate) will
completely dissociate to aluminum ions (Al3+), used to precipitate
anions in water and wastewater treatment. Also, precipitation is used to
remove toxic metal ions by reacting alkaline or sulphate. The general
reaction of a cation M+ reacts with an anion A- to form an insoluble
product MA. It can be expressed as:
M+(aq) + A–(aq) MA(s)
You may realize that the concentration of the insoluble product in direct
equilibrium with the reactions is small and effectively constant. The
concentration [MA] in the equilibria can therefore be incorporated in
the equilibrium constant and written as the solubility product constant,
Ksp.
Ksp = [M+] [A–]
Table 9.5 gives the solubility product of several important species in

water and wastewater treatment.
Table 9.5 Solubility products constants, Ksp in water at 25oC, 1 atm
Substance Equilibrium reaction Ksp

Aluminum hydroxide Al(OH)3 Al3+ + 3OH– 2×10–32
Barium sulphate Ba(SO)4 Ba2+ + SO42– 1×10–10
Copper hydroxide Cu(OH)2 Cu2+ + 2OH– 1.6×10–19
Iron hydroxide Fe(OH)2 Fe2+ + 2OH– 8×10–16
Lime Ca(OH)2 Ca2+ + 2OH– 5.5×10–6
(Christian 2003)
Example
What will happen if the value of Ksp of aluminum hydroxide is exceeded
the insoluble product [Al3+] [OH-]3 in wastewater treatment processes?
Solution
If the concentration of [Al3+] is multiplied by the concentration of

[OH-]3 , so that [Al3+] [OH-]3 is greater than 2 × 10-32, the insoluble
product, aluminum hydroxide is precipitated.
Unit 9 51
Coagulation
Raw water or wastewater may contain suspended matter which is both
settleable and dispersed colloidals. However, each dispersed colloidal
is stabilized by negative electrical charges on its surface, causing it to
repel neighbouring colloidals, which prevents these charged particles
from colliding to form larger particles, called floc. Therefore, they
do not settle. Coagulation is the destabilization of these colloids by
reducing the forces that keep the colloidals apart. Coagulation is
accomplished by the addition of a chemical such as alumimum sulphate
or ferric chloride, called a ‘coagulant’, which neutralizes the charges so
that the particles can agglomerate. The coagulation process is practically
instantaneous, and the initial particles are usually sub-microscopic in
size. These colloidal particles are then gathered to form settleable solids
by the process of flocculation, which combines to larger particles.
Most coagulants on mixing with water act by a process of double

decomposition involving the mutual interchange of groups, the end
product being hydroxides [e.g. Al(OH)3, Fe(OH)3 in the form of
gelatinous precipitates]. Hydroxide is the desired end product, which
is insoluble, floc forming and heavier than water. It carries the positive
electric charge necessary to neutralize the negative charges of the
colloidal particles. Further reasons for the addition of some form of
alkali are to establish the optimum pH value at which coagulation can
take place, and to raise the final pH value after treatment to reduce
corrosiveness.
Wastewater chemical treatment
Coagulation with lime, ferric salts and commercial aluminum is

used in wastewater treatment in which it has shown high potential
for the removal of suspended solids (60–80%), BOD (50–70%), and
phosphorus (over 90%) and heavy metals (over 80%). Large doses
of the chemical coagulant are necessary in wastewater treatment.
Furthermore, more sludge would be produced so that a large quantity of
sludge requires dewatering and disposal.
Treatment of water from the Dongjiang
Raw water coming directly from Guangdong Province or from storage

reservoirs in Hong Kong is often difficult to clarify by physical gravity
settling, needing treatment with lime and alum at dosages which tend to
be narrowly critical. In general, water of pH 6.2 to 7 with a reasonable
degree of alkalinity reacts well to alum, which produces Al(OH)3 which
is least soluble at pH 5.5 to 8. The alum dosage in water treatment
ranges from 10 to 60 mg/L. Ferric chloride doses are in the range of
5 to 60 mg/L, depending on the quality of the raw water. In the WSD
treatment works, the water from the clarifiers is clear, but it is acidic
because of the sulphate of alumina which has been added. Lime is
used to neutralize this acidity and to give the water a slightly alkaline
characteristic (average pH = 8) to reduce corrosion of pipes and fittings.
Reactions involved in coagulation
As discussed, the most commonly used coagulants in water treatment

are based primarily on aluminum and iron salts. For example:
Alum, Al2(SO4)3·14H2O, reacts with alkalinity to form the insoluble

hydroxide:
or
Ferric salts, FeCl3, Fe2(SO4)3, react to produce the insoluble ferric

hydroxide:
Lime, Ca(OH)2, functions differently as a coagulant from aluminum or

iron salts. Lime reacts with bicarbonate alkalinity to precipitate calcium
carbonate and with orthophoshate to precipitate calcium hydroxyapatite.
Softening
As discussed in the previous section, water is described as ‘hard water’
if a large amount of dissolved minerals, specifically calcium ions
(Ca2+) and magnesium ions (Mg2+) are present in it. Although hard
water is not a health risk, it can be a nuisance because of scale build-
up on hot water pipes, heaters, boilers, and poor detergent performance
that require considerable amounts of soap to produce a foam or
lather. Hardness in water can be a result of contact with soil and rock,
particularly limestone, in the presence of CO2. As water moves through
soil and rock, very small amounts of minerals will be dissolved, and
these minerals will be held in solution. An increase in the calcium and
magnesium ion content causes a greater degree of hardness. Softening
of water is a process that removes hardness by removing the metallic
ions present in water. Softening is unusual necessary for surface water
because the hardness of surface water seldom reaches to a sufficiently
high level (above 300 mg/L). However, softening is occasionally
desirable for groundwater where hardness can be up to a very high
level, which is 1500 mg/L.
Methods for softening water
The two basic methods of softening public water supplies are chemical
precipitation and ion exchange. Other methods can also be used to
soften water. Some of the processes are complex and expensive and
are usually used only in unusual circumstances. The advantages and
disadvantages of the processes are shown in Table 9.6.
Unit 9 53
Table 9.6 Comparison of various water softening methods
Method Description Advantages Disadvantages

Chemical water Chemical are added in Magnesium and Output water is not
softeners laundering process calcium ions are suitable for drinking
removed
Water filtres Water is filtered with a Output water is suitable Does not prevent lime
portable filtre unit for drinking scale deposits in pipes
and heating system
Chlorine can be
removed
Water is softened.
Mechanical The mechanical Lime scale can be Output water may not
water softeners softeners are installed prevented be suitable for drinking
in the system to
The cost is high
replace calcium and
magnesium with
sodium
Magnetic water The magnetic water Output water is suitable A relatively new
conditioners softeners are installed for drinking technology
in the plumbing system
Lime scale can be
to alter calcium ions so
prevented
they cannot cause lime
scale. Calcium ions are
retained, which are
good for the diet
(http://www.hardwater.org/water_treatment.html)
Lime-soda softening in Hong Kong
Lime-soda softening is a chemical softening method. Lime (Calcium

oxide) is added to water hydrate to form Ca(OH)2, which removes
carbonate hardness by converting the soluble calcium hydrogen
carbonate [Ca(HCO3)2] to insoluble calcium carbonate (CaCO3):
Ca(HCO3)2 + Ca(OH)2 → 2 CaCO3 + 2 H2O
Also, the soluble magnesium hydrogen carbonate [Mg(HCO3)] is

converted by Ca(OH)2 to insoluble calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and
soluble magnesium carbonate (MgCO3):
Mg(HCO3)2 + Ca(OH)2 → CaCO3 + MgCO3 + 2 H2O
The soluble MgCO3 is then precipitated as magnesium hydrate

[Mg(OH)2] and CaCO3 with the addition of more lime:
MgCO3 + Ca(OH)2 → Mg(OH)2 + CaCO3

Non-carbonate hardness, such as soluble CaSO4 and MgSO4, is

precipitated as CaCO3 using soda ash (Na2CO3):
CaSO4 + Na2CO3 → Na2SO4 + CaCO3
The use of excess lime softening (raising the pH to about 12.4) is

beneficial in sterilizing the water. After a sufficient contact time at
high pH, all bacteria, cholera, salmonella, virus and parasites will
be destroyed. Also, almost all organics are removed, preventing the
formation of harmful disinfection by-products from reactions with
chlorine.
However, in this softening process, the basic problem is that calcium

precipitation, an essential step in the softening process, can neither
be predicted nor controlled easily. Not only does the precipitation
of calcium in the effluent occur at different concentrations than
theoretically calculated, it varies significantly with the pH value. In
addition, the bench scale tests can not be repeated on the pilot plant,
although from time to time low calcium can be achieved. The required
dosing rates change with the varying quality of wastewater in an
unpredictable manner, making automatic control of the system very
difficult. On top of that, after lime softening, the ph and alkalinity must
be adjusted to a level suitable for human comsumption (lower than
pH10).
Ion exchange softening
The ion-exchange method of water softening has been extensively used

in smaller water systems and individual homes. This method is based
on the ability of the ion-exchange resin zeolite to exchange one ion
from the water being treated with another ion in the resin. Zeolite resin
exchanges sodium ions for ions causing hardness in the water. Such
ions are those of the calcium and magnesium present in the water that
flows through the zeolite resin bed. The water treated ends up with more
sodium ions than before. This may cause a potential problem for people
who must watch their salt intake. This softening process has no effect
on the water’s pH or alkalinity, but the stability of the water is altered
because of the removal of the calcium and magnesium ions. Also, there
is an increase in dissolved solids. For each mg/l of calcium removed
and replaced by sodium, the total dissolved solids increases by 0.15 mg/
l. For each mg/l of magnesium removed and replaced by sodium, the
total dissolved solids will increase by 0.88 mg/l.
The measurement used to express water hardness in the ion-exchange

process is expressed as grains per gallon. The following conversions
show the relationship between mg/l and grains per gallon:
1 grain = 17.12 mg/L

1 grain = 0.143 lbs per 1000 gallon
7000 grains = 1 lb per gal
Unit 9 55
Example
For a water sample taken from the Aberdeen Reservoir containing 10
grains per gallon, what would the hardness be expressed as mg/L?
Solution
10 grains per gallon × 17.12 mg/l / grain
= 171.2 mg/l of hardness.
Advantages of ion-exchange process
Ion exchange softening has certain advantages over lime-soda

softening. One of the advantages is its compactness and low cost. The
chemicals used are safer for the operator to handle, and the operation
of the zeolite-softening process is much easier. It can be almost totally
automated. As the resins have the ability to remove all of the hardness
from the water, the treated water must be blended with untreated water
to obtain the hardness level that the operator would like to maintain.
Ion exchange unit
The inside part of the ion exchange unit is generally treated to protect
the tank against corrosion from the salt. The size and volume of the
units are dictated by the hardness of the water and the volume of treated
water that must be produced between each regeneration cycle. The resin
is supported by an under-drain system that removes the treated water
and distributes the brine evenly during the regeneration process. The
minimum depth of the resin should be no less than 24 inches above the
under-drain (see Figure 9.20).
Figure 9.20 An ion exchange unit (http://www.water.usfilter.com/ion_exchange.

htm)
Disinfection
Disinfection differs from sterilization, which implies complete
destruction of all microbial life. In contrast, disinfection implies the
selective destruction of pathogens (disease-causing organisms), which is
the destruction of disease producing organisms by the use of a chemical
or other agent such as ozone or UV light. It is necessary, because even
well filtered water may not be free of bacteria contamination, with the
result that disinfection may be required to remove this contamination or
reduce it to a negligible amount. Disinfection is used to free the harmful
bacteria in water. It is practised in most municipal wastewater treatment
plants, as the primary goal of drinking water quality is prevention of
disease.
A number of factors, such as type and quantity of organisms, will affect

disinfection efficiency. Under conditions that all organisms are identical
and the rate of disinfection can be defined by Chick’s law:
Integrate the above equation with the limit, N from Nt at any time t to No
at t = 0.
, where
Nt = Number of organisms existing remaining after contact time t

No = Initial number of organisms existing at contact time 0
k = Reaction rate constant for disinfectant
t = Contact time
Unit 9 57
Chlorination
Chlorination is the most common method of disinfecting public water

supplies, because it not only renders the pathogenic harmless but also
leaves some residue to take care of organisms in a distribution system.
Chlorine gas hydrolyzes in water to form hypochlorous acid:
Cl2 + H2O HOCl + H+ + OCl–
Hypochlorous acid is a strong oxidizing agent to disinfect pathogens

from dissociating into hydrogen ions and hypochlorite ions in the
reversible reaction.
HOCl H– + OCl–
Chlorine lowers the pH of water due to two released hydrogen ions

form the above equations. The low pH environment inhibits the growth
and living condition for most of microorganisms. HOCl and OCl- are
called free available chlorine, which is available for disinfection under
the following mechanism.
Although this technique can be used to disinfect the bacteria load in the
early treatment of the water, one adverse effect of the treatment is the
generation of trihalomethanes, considered carcinogenic. The quality of
drinking would be directly affected. After production, these compounds
are difficult to remove, and activated carbon may be required to absorb
the trihalomethanes. Thus it is preferable to prevent their formation by
using chlorination at the later stage.
Example
Determine the contact time required to give an E. coli kill of 99.99% for
a free chlorine residual of 0.12 mg/L in Kwun Tong Public Swimming
Pool if k = 0.02 s–1 and the equation for the calculation for chlorine
action is:
= 400 sec
t = 20 sec
Ozonation
Disinfection by ozonation is to oxidize those pathogens with ozone. The

low solubility and instability of ozone means that it must be generated
on site and introduced into the water as fine bubbles. A retention time of
five to ten minutes is usually sufficient to destroy pathogens.
O2 + O· → O3
O· represents oxygen radical, which is a strong oxidizing agent.
For clear water, ozone is an effective way of destroying pathogens,

removing taste, odour and colour problems. It does not produce
undesirable products, e.g. chlorophenols, trihalomethanes. The
breakdown of ozone, however, means that it has no lasting residual
effect. The advantages and disadvantages of ozone are summarized in
Table 9.7
Table 9.7 Advantages and disadvantages of ozone
Advantages Disadvantages
Leaves no tastes or odour Difficult to transport ozone
Doesn’t react with natural organic Relatively high cost
substances such as decaying
vegetation to form hazardous
compounds
Generated on site Short-term guard against
infection
Example
Ozone is used to achieve 99.5% kill of bacteria in the water of cooling
towers with a residual of 0.6mg/L. Determine the required contact time
if the reaction rate constant for ozone disinfections is 2.2×10–2s–1.
Solution
= 240.8 s
= 4 minutes
Unit 9 59
UV light disinfection of drinking water
Nowadays, more than one billion people in the developing world still
lack access to safe drinking water. The problem of unsafe drinking
water is related to the problems of adequate water supply, community
education in public hygiene, access to sanitation, and effective and safe
disposal of human and animal waste. Nevertheless, a device that offers
affordable, simple, robust and low-maintenance disinfection of drinking
water can be an important part of the solution in the developing
countries (see Figure 9.21).
Water Out
UV Light
UV Lamp
Water In Aluminium Reflector and Case
Figure 9.21 Schematic diagram of UV light disinfection system
The biological contaminated water first flows into the system. Then, UV
light shines on drinking water, and the aluminum reflector will reflect
the penetrating light in order to ensure sufficient intensity of UV light to
damage the structure of microorganisms.
Biological treatment processes
Introduction
Although many microorganisms are looked on as potentially hazardous
for human hygiene, they can be very beneficial in stabilizing harmful
pollutants. The biological treatment of wastewater can be used to
coagulate and remove the nonsettleable colloidal solids and to stabilize
the organic matter. Microorganisms are found almost everywhere in
nature and are useful in the treatment of wastewater. Most of the organic
constituents (substrate) in wastewater can serve as food to provide
energy for microbial growth, which is the principle used in biological
treatment processes.
The principle in biological waste treatment is to reduce the organic

content and the nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus that
microorganisms convert in the organic substrate to carbon dioxide and
water to produce next generation cells (see Figure 9.22).

Figure 9.22 Role of microorganisms in wastewater treatment
Bacteria are the most important group of microorganisms and are

discussed further in S122 and S204. Figure 9.23 shows the general
growth pattern of bacteria in a culture system. The rate of microbial
growth varies with the amount of available substrate, and consists of the
following four phases:
Figure 9.23 Microbial growth in a batch culture (Henry and Heinke 1996)
A: Lag phase. This represents the time required for the microorganisms
to acclimate to their nutritional environment and begin to divide.
Unit 9 61
B: Log growth phase. There is always an excess amount of food

surrounding the microorganisms. The rate of metabolism and growth
is only a function of the ability of the microorganism to process the
substrate (constant percentage growth rate).
C: Declining growth phase. As food decreases, the rate of increase of

bacteria mass decreases.
D: Endogenous phase. As the concentration of available food is at

a minimum, the number of microorganisms declines as old cells
decompose, releasing their nutrients for use by new microorganisms.
Therefore, the removal of carbonaceous BOD, the coagulation of

nonsettleable colloidal solids and the stabilization of organic matter
are accomplished biologically, using a variety of microorganisms,
principally bacteria. The microorganisms are used to convert the
colloidal and dissolved carbonaceous organic matter into various gases
and into cell tissue. Because cell tissue has a specific gravity slightly
greater than that of water, the resulting cells can be removed from the
treated liquid by gravity settling.
It is important to note that, unless the cell tissue produced from the
organic matter is removed from the solution, complete treatment has not
been accomplished because the cell tissue, which itself is organic, will
be contributed as BOD in the effluent. If the cell tissue is not removed,
the only treatment that has been achieved is that associated with the
bacterial conversion of a portion of the organic matter originally present
to various gaseous end products.
General metabolic processes
Aerobic/anoxic processes
The overall biological conversion proceeds with oxidation of organic

content as the first step:
The above aerobic metabolism is achieved by using oxygen, and oxygen

is referred to as the terminal electron acceptor. The mechanism for its
use is the following:
½ O2 + 2e- → O2-
O2- + 2H+ → H2O
A number of other electron acceptors can be used in place of oxygen;

for example, sulphate reducing organism, here SO42- is used as follows:
SO42- + 8H+ + 8e-→ S2- + 4 H2O

Under continuing aerobic conditions, bacteria then convert the nitrogen

in organic compounds to nitrates according to the following equations:
1 Organic N → Ammonia
and
2 Ammonia → Nitrite, so that NH4+ + 2H2O → NO2- + 8H+ + 6e-

The above biological process is undertaken by the activities of
nitrosomonas, and the nitrosomonas can oxidize ammonia to the
intermediate product nitrite. Nitrite is then converted to nitrate by
nitrobacter.
3 Nitrite → Nitrate, so that NO2- + H2O → NO3- + 2H+ + 2e-

The above hydrogen ions and electrons are normally taken up by
oxygen.
Under anoxic conditions, so that only bound oxygen is present,

heterotrophic bacteria convert the nitrates to nitrogen gas:
4 Nitrate → Nitrogen, so that NO3- + 6H+ + 5e- → N2 + 3H2O

and
5 Nitrite → Nitrogen, so that NO2- + 4H+ + 3e- → N2 + 3H2O
Anaerobic processes
Anaerobic processes occur only in the absence of oxygen and are

more complex than aerobic processes, because they occur in a two-
step liquefaction/gasification process, carried out by two groups of
heterotrophic bacteria:
Organic matter → intermediates + CO2 + H2S + H2O

Organic acids → CH4 + CO2
Initially, acid-forming bacteria convert complex organic matter into

intermediates (organic acids and alcohols). At this point, methane-
forming bacteria convert the organic acids and alcohols into methane
and carbon dioxide gas.
The advantages of anaerobic processes over aerobic ones are:
The end products contain considerable amount of energy, notably in the

form of methane.
Less sludge from anaerobic stabilization of wastewater is produced than

from aerobic stabilization of the same wastewater.
As noted in Section 12.5.2, ‘Biological processes’, the methane gases

formed are collected and used for heating digesters, and possibly for the
whole treatment plant operation such as boilers, compressors, pumps,
lighting and other mechanical equipment.
Unit 9 63
Activated sludge
The activated sludge process is a continuous system in which the
concentrated sludge containing living, or active, microorganisms is
returned and mixed with additional wastewater to increase the available
biomass and speed up the biological reactions. The activated sludge
process is thus a suspended culture process with sludge recycle and may
be either a plug-flow or completely mixed process, as depicted in
Figure 9.24. You should note that the impurities such as suspended
solids, oil and grease, must be removed or altered by preliminary
treatment before subsequent activated sludge treatment can be
considered.
Figure 9.24 Activated sludge systems (Eckenfelder 1991)

The conventional process uses long rectangular aeration tanks, which

approximate plug flow, assuming complete mixing in transverse plane
with some longitudinal mixing. This process is primarily used for the
treatment of domestic wastewater in Hong Kong. Recycled sludge
is mixed with the wastewater in a mixing chamber at the inlet of the
aeration tank, so that the contents of the aeration tank (mixed liquor)
flow through the aeration tanks, during which progressive removal of
organics occurs.
The contact stabilization process is applicable to wastewater containing

a high proportion of the organic contaminants in a particulate form.
Since bio-adsorption and flocculation of suspended solids occur very
rapidly, only a short contact period (20–40 minutes) is required to effect
clarification. After the contact period, the activated sludge is separated
in a clarifier. A sludge re-aeration period (over four hours) is required to
stabilize the organics removed in the stabilization tank.
Step aeration is a variant between the conventional process and the

completely mixed process and has been successfully used for the
treatment of domestic wastewater.
In the completely mixed system, the aeration tank serves as an

equalization basin to smooth out load variations and as a dilute for slugs
and toxic materials.
Attached culture systems

Attached culture (fix film) systems use reactors in which wastewater is
contacted with microbial films attached to surfaces such as rock, plastic,
or sand. The wastewater is sprayed over rocks or sand, and a microbial
slime layer develops on the surface. This layer has the effect of reducing
the BOD of effluents. Traditionally, the rocks were grouped in a shallow,
open-topped cylinder about 1 m deep. The rocks were of the order of 25
to 100 mm in size. In more recent times, plastic media have been used
instead of rocks to encourage the growth of microbial later, on media
with very high surface area to volume rations. Therefore, replacing a
porous medium in the reactor increases surface area for biofilm growth.
When a randomly packed solid medium is used, the reactor is called

a trickling or percolating filtre. The advent of highly porous and
lightweight modular media enables a vertical arrangement of medium
several meters high, leading to the term bio-tower, the core element
of a compact sewage treatment process that can produce a very high
quality effluent (see Figure 9.25). You should note that in a traditional
biological treatment process, it is used to design a large sedimentation
tank after the main biological reactors, to allow the bacteria to settle out
as sludge so that it would not be discharged with the treated wastewater.
The bio-tower can skip this step, because the bacteria are held in the
filtre and therefore take up much less space than a traditional wastewater
treatment plant does.
Unit 9 65
Figure 9.25 A Bio-tower (Environment Hong Kong 2003, HKSAR)
Other systems are the rotating biological contactor (RBC), which is

used for both low-strength and high-strength waste. In Hong Kong,
many areas such as in Sai Kung, Sham Tseng, Yuen Long, Cheung
Chau, Lantau Island are not served by public foul sewers. Housing
developers in these areas are therefore required to provide their own
wastewater treatment plants to treat the sewage to acceptable standards
for direct discharge into the receiving waters. Effluents from those areas
predominantly use RBC with plastic media in the form of large, flat
disks mounted on a common shaft rotating through specially contoured
tanks in which wastewater flows on a continuous basis. The RBC is
shown in Figure 9.26.
Figure 9.26 Rotating biological contactor (Wastewater treatment plant at Palm

Spring in Yuen Long)
References
Christian, G D (2003) Analytical Chemistry, 6th edn, Hoboken, NH:
John Wiley & Sons.
Eckenfelder, W W Jr (1991) Principles of Water Quality Management,

Boston: CBI Publication Company, Inc.
Environmental Protection Department (2003) Beach Water Quality in

Hong Kong 2003, HKSAR.
Environmental Protection Department (2003) Environment Hong Kong

2003, HKSAR.
Environmental Protection Department (2003) Marine Water Quality in

Hong Kong in 2002, HKSAR.
Environmental Protection Department (2003) River Water Quality in

Hong Kong 2002, HKSAR.
Environmental Protection Department (2002) Water Pollution Control

Guidelines and Information: http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/
environmentinhk/water/guide_ref/water_guidelines.html, Hong Kong.
Harm, W (1980) Biological Effects of Ultraviolet Radiation,

International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics, Biophysics series,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Henry, J G and Heinke, G W (1996) Environmental Science and

Engineering, 2nd edn, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Ho, K C and Hue, K C C (2001) ‘Chemical contamination of the East

River (Dongjiang) and its implication on sustainable development in the
Pearl River Delta’, Environmental International 26:303–8.
Ho, K C and Wang, Z D (2000) ‘Proceedings of the Regional

Symposium on Prevention and Management of Harmful Algal Blooms
in the South China’, 2000-HABSCS, The Open University of Hong
Kong.
Ho, K C (2003) ‘Proceedings of the International Conference on the

Prevention and Management of Harmful Algal Blooms in the South
China Sea’, 2003-HABSCS, The Open University of Hong Kong.
Hodgkiss, I J (2002) ‘Coastal Eutrophication: A Review of 30 Years

of Study and the Lessons Learned’, Second International Workshop on
Coastal Eutrophication 2002, November 21–24, 2002, Tianjin, China.
Hodgkiss, I J and Ho, K C (1997) ‘Are changes in N:P ratios in coastal

waters the key to icreased red tide blooms? Hydrobiologia 352:141–47.
Kiley, G (1988) Environmental Engineering, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Unit 9 67
Tchobanoglous, G and Burton, F L (1991) Wastewater Engineering,

Treatment, Disposal, and Reuse, 3rd edn, McGraw-Hill International
Editions.
Technical Memorandum – Standards for Effluent Discharge into

Drainage and Sewage Systems, Inland and Coastal, EPD, HKSAR,
1997.
World Health Organization, ‘Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative

Council, and United Nations Children’s Fund’, WHO/EOS/96.15,
Geneva 1996.
Yau, Y H (1995) ‘Rationale for effective plant design in industrial

wastewater treatment, ASIA Engineer, The Journal of Hong Kong
Institution of Engineers, November: 29–32.
Key environmental concepts

Colloids — very finely divided solids that do not dissolve and that
remain electrically charged particles (mostly negative). They adsorb
particles of the opposite charge on their surface (formation of an electric
double layer). They do not agglomerate because of the repelling force of
similarly charged particles. They do not settle to the bottom because of
their low specific gravity.
Colloidal solids — very small, finely divided solids that do not dissolve
and that remain dispersed in a liquid for a long time, which will not
settle but may be removed by coagulation.
Concentration — a general term referring to the quality of a

substance contained in unit quantity of a given medium. For example,
concentrations of substances dissolved in water are usually expressed
either in mass of substance per unit volume of mixture, or mass of
substance per mass of mixture.
Effluent — discharges of wastewater into communal sewers, storm

water drains, river courses or water bodies; for example, sewage effluent
is the liquid finally discharged from a wastewater treatment plant.
E. coli — an organism of the coliform group which inhabits the human

and the animal intestine. If E. coli is not detected, water may be passed
as safe even if a few coliforms are present; but no coliforms should be
present in water that has been disinfected. E. coli, serves as an indictor
organism and indicates faecal contamination.
Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) — the amount of dissolved

oxygen required by microorganisms to oxidize organic wastes
aerobically. BOD5 is the total amount of dissolved oxygen consumed by
microorganisms during the five days of biodegradation at 20oC.
Biological filtre —a trickling filtre or biological tower consisting of a

bed of inert material such as rocks, plastic or other media cover through
which wastewater is distributed and through which it percolates to
under drains, thus giving an opportunity for the formation of biological
slimes which bring about oxidation and clarification of the wastewater.
Biomass — the total amount of biotic material, usually expressed per

unit surface area or volume of a medium such as water.
Biota —living organisms.
Chemical oxygen demand (COD) — the amount of oxygen used in

the chemical oxidation of the matter present in a sample by a specified
strong oxidizing agent under standard conditions.
Chlorination — the application of chlorine to drinking water or

wastewater for the purpose of disinfection.
Unit 9 69
Influent — water, wastewater or other liquid flowing into a reservoir or

treatment plant.
Eutrophication — the enrichment of water in watercourses and

lakes by chemical substances, especially compounds of nitrogen and
phosphorus, which often accelerate the growth of algae.
Pathogens — bacteria capable of producing diseases.
Percent volume — measurement of concentration for solutions, for

example, l % volume = l g of dissolved substance per 100 mL of
solution.
Percent weight — measurement of concentration for mixtures solid/

liquid or liquid/solid, for example, 1% weight = 1 g of substance per
100 g of mixture.
pH value — negative logarithm of the hydrogen-ion concentration. Pure

neutral water has equal concentrations of hydrogen ions and hydroxide
ions.
ppm — parts per million, for example, 1 g per kg, 1mL per m3, mg per
litre.
Sedimentation tank — a tank in which water or sewage containing

sediment is retained for a sufficient time at a sufficiently low velocity to
remove part of the sediment by gravity.
Sewer — pipes conveying wastewater or sewage.
Sewerage — a network of sewers possibly with associate pumping

stations and wastewater treatment plants.
Sludge — accumulated solids produced during the treatment of

wastewater.
Suspended solids — solids that are suspended in a wastewater or

effluent.
Feedback on activities
Activity 9.1
For river water, k = 0.1 day:
Substitute k into equation , therefore
When half of the substance consumed, then
Therefore, log 0.5 = –0.1 t0.5
Therefore t0.5 is around 3 days, so that it takes 3 days for half of organic
matter to degrade.
Similarly,
For domestic sewage, t0.5 is around 2 days.
For glucose solution, t0.5 is around 1 day.
Activity 9.2
An advantage of the COD test over the BOD5 test is that chemists do
not have to wait five days for the results. The COD test also is used
to measure the strength of wastes that are too toxic for the BOD test.
As BOD tests cannot be used for those industrial wastes containing
materials that are toxic to the bacteria, COD becomes especially useful
in assessing the oxygen demand of these wastes. COD is usually higher
than BOD, but the amount will vary from waste to waste.
Activity 9.3
Faecal indicators are groups of microorganisms used to indicate the
presence and the extent of faecal material. The presence of a large
quantity of faecal indicators usually suggests the possible presence of
some pathogenic (disease-causing) microorganisms. E. coli is selected
because it is present in large number inside the gastrointestinal tracts of
all warm-blooded animals including humans, and in their excreta. Thus,
the presence and level of E. coli can reflect whether and to what extent
a body of water is faecally polluted and therefore likely to contain
pathogenic microorganisms. The procedure for enumerating E. coli is
less complicated compared to those of the direct analysis of pathogens.
Unit 9 71
Activity 9.4
The equation shows that the opportunities for improving separation are:
• The greater the density difference between the particle and the
liquid phase, the greater the sedimentation rate.
• The loweer the viscosity of the liquid phase, the greater the
sedimentation rate.
• The larger the particle diameter, the greater the sedimentation rate.
Activity 9.5
Two important conclusions can be drawn from the equation: (1) the
height H of the tank does not influence the throughput, Q, and (2) the
throughput of the tank is directly proportional to the area, A which can
be used for separation.
Q can be increased if A is increased by fitting a number of horizontal

plates, as illustrated in the following figure. This gives a number of
separation channels, say N, each of which has Q = utA. Therefore, the
total area NA determines the Q.
Tank with horizontal plates
However, you should note that in continuous separation in a tank fitted

with horizontal plates, the channels will eventually become clogged
with sediment, and separation will cease. If inclined plates are fitted as
shown in the figure below, the sediment will slide down the plates under
the influence of gravity and will collect at the bottom of the tank.
Tank with inclined plates

Equation Q = utNA may still be used for calculating the Q of this type of
tank, if the projected area of the plate is used, where A = area of each
plate = inclined length Hi × breadth of the tank B
A = (H/sin θ) (B)
Activity 9.6
Many units are provided so that mechanical failure or maintenance will
not cause hydraulic overload, in which a manually cleaned screen is
used as a backup.
Activity 9.7
KH is the Henry’s constant or coefficient of absorption, which is unique
for each gas-liquid system. The constants for the gases as given in many
text books are commonly found in water bodies in Hong Kong, which
are seen to vary substantially with temperature.
Activity 9.8
The integrated form of equation is obtained by
integrating between the limits of where C = Co at t = 0 and C = Ct at t = t
The terms (Cequil – Ct) and (Cequil – Co) represent the final and initial gas
saturation deficits.
Unit 9 73
Activity 9.9
Winter stratification may occur in a very cold winter, so that surface
waters may freeze over the surface of the reservoir, and the more
dense water at 4oC sinks to the bottom. Summer stratification occurs
during the warm seasons. As the surface waters warm rapidly by solar
radiation, a less dense surface layer of water forms.
Appendix 1
Table 1 Standards for effluents discharged into foul sewers leading into
Government sewage treatment plants (All units in mg/L unless
otherwise stated; all figures are upper limits unless otherwise
indicated)
Flow rate ≤10 >10 >100 >200 >400 >600 >800 >1000 >1500 >2000 >3000 >4000 >6000
(m3/day) and and and and and and and and and and and and
Determinand ≤100 ≤200 ≤400 ≤600 ≤800 ≤1000 ≤1500 ≤2000 ≤3000 ≤4000 ≤5000 ≤6000
pH (pH units) 6-10 6-10 6-10 6-10 6-10 6-10 6-10 6-10 6-10 6-10 6-10 6-10 6-10
Temperature 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43
(ºC)
Suspended 1200 1000 900 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800
solids
Settleable 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
solids
BOD 1200 1000 900 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800
COD 3000 2500 2200 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000
Oil & grease 100 100 50 50 50 40 30 20 20 20 20 20 20
Iron 30 25 25 25 15 12.5 10 7.5 5 3.5 2.5 2 1.5
Boron 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.4 1.6 1.2 0.8 0.6 0.5 0.4
Mercury 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.1 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001
Cadmium 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.1 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001
Copper 4 4 4 3 1.5 1.5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Nickel 4 3 3 2 1.5 1.5 1 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.6
Chromium 2 2 2 2 1 0.7 0.6 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1
Zinc 5 5 4 3 1.5 1.5 1 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.6
Silver 4 3 3 2 1.5 1.5 1 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.6
Other toxic 2.5 2.2 2 1.5 1 0.7 0.6 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.15 0.12 0.1
metals
individually
Total toxic 10 10 8 7 3 2 2 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.2 1.2 1
metals
Cyanide 2 2 2 1 0.7 0.5 0.4 0.27 0.2 0.13 0.1 0.08 0.06
Phenols 1 1 1 1 0.7 0.5 0.4 0.27 0.2 0.13 0.1 0.1 0.1
Sulphide 10 10 10 10 5 5 4 2 2 2 1 1 1
Sulphate 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 900 800 600 600 600 600
Total nitrogen 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 100 100 100 100 100 100
Total 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 25 25 25 25 25 25
phosphorus
Surfactants 200 150 50 40 30 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25
(total)
Unit 9 75
Table 2 Standards for effluents discharged into foul sewers leading into
Government sewage treatment plants with microbial treatment (All
units in mg/L unless otherwise stated; all figures are upper limits
unless otherwise indicated)
Flow rate ≤10 >10 >100 >200 >400 >600 >800 >1000 >1500 >2000 >3000 >4000 >6000
(m3/day) and and and and and and and and and and and and
Determinand ≤100 ≤200 ≤400 ≤600 ≤800 ≤1000 ≤1500 ≤2000 ≤3000 ≤4000 ≤5000 ≤6000
Copper 1.5 1 1 1 0.8 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05
Note: Standards in this table apply in place of those in Table 1 for the
corresponding determined.

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ENVR S335

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Water and wastewater quality requirements 6

Wastewater characteristics and required standards 30

Chemical treatment processes 48

Biological treatment processes 60

Key environmental concepts 68

Although surrounded by seawater and a beautiful coastline, Hong Kong

Legislation and Management. In ENVR S335, we focus on studying the

A Marine water monitoring stations in Hong Kong

B River water monitoring stations in Hong Kong

Figure 9.1 Environmental Protection Department (EPD)’s stations ( / ) of

To deal with environmental problems in the lower reaches of

1 The problems of water pollution in Hong Kong and relevant

2 The problems of local drinking water supplies and potable water

3 The policies and control of water quality in the USEPA: https://

4 International journals and current news in water and wastewater:

Specifically, this unit:

• describes the requirements of setting water quality standards and

• demonstrates the knowledge of the effects from the effluent of a

• describes the theory of physical treatment processes and the

• explains the theory and principles of chemical treatment processes

• describes different biological treatment options and the basic design

Water and wastewater quality

No matter which approach is used, policymakers tend to set water

Now, let us go through the major water quality parameters commonly

Physical water quality parameters

Colour, to a certain extent, indicates the gut feelings of the general

Taste and odour

As turbidity is often associated with increased content of

Chemists tell us that water is the most powerful solvent in nature. In

As you may have studied in the chemistry module of S122, temperature

As you learned in fundamental physics courses, the conductivity of a

Chemical water quality parameters

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is the amount of oxygen dissolved in river

of photosynthesis. Since dissolved oxygen is essential for supporting

The dissolution of oxygen may be affected by many factors, including

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)

In Section 3 of T237, we studied the meaning and measurement of

BOD is an important parameter in water monitoring and water and

The classic method of measuring BOD is to use special bottles with

or ppm. Sometimes, dilutions of the tested water sample are necessary,

Since BOD is such an important parameter for water science and

The BOD test

The BOD test may be considered a wet oxidation process in which

The elements of pollutants oxidized or used as the oxidation agent are:

C: oxidized by O2 and its valence changed from 0 to +4

Chemists found that the rate of biochemical oxidation of organic matter

L = concentration of organic matter expressed in dissolved oxygen (mg/L)

This is approximate first order kinetics, because the rate of reaction is

K is the rate of oxidation, rate constant (day–1)

The kinetic relationships can be understood from the equation

When integrated and rearranged, then

L = concentration of unoxidized substance (mg/L) in oxidizability so

Practically, as BOD is used to measure the oxidizability of a water or

BODt = amount of oxidizable substance consumed (mg/L)

A similar relationship with logarithm to base 10, is

Example of calculation and applications

1 Calculate the complete oxidation capacity of a water sample