Environmental Science and

Engineering

Lesson 4,5

Water Supply and Treatment

Wastewater Treatment
Lesson 4,5

Water Supply and Treatment

Wastewater Treatment
Introduction

Wastewater is discharged from homes, commercial establishments, and industrial plants by

means of sanitary sewers. Sewers flow by gravity drainage downhill, and the collecting
sewers, converge to a central point where the water flows by trunk sewers to the wastewater
treatment plant.

Specific Objectives

After completing the lessons, the students are able to:

Discuss the process of hydrologic cycle and identify the methods of water treatment

Duration

Lesson 4,5: Water Supply and Treatment = 6 hours - lecture

Wastewater Treatment
WATER SUPPLY AND TREATMENT

I. THE HYDROLOGIC CYCLE AND WATER AVAILABILITY

The Water Cycle

1. Evaporation - The transformation of water from liquid to gas phases as It moves from the
ground or bodies of water into the overlying atmosphere.

2. Sublimation - The state change directly from solid water (snow or ice) to water vapor.

3. Transpiration - The release of water vapor from plants and soil into the air. Water vapor
is a gas that cannot be seen.

4. Transportation - Movement of water through the atmosphere, specifically from over the
oceans to over land.

5. Condensation - The transformation of water vapor to liquid water droplets in the air,
creating clouds and fog.

6. Deposition - Also known as desublimation, is a thermodynamic process, a phase transition

in which gas vapor transforms into solid (ice).

7. Precipitation - condensed water vapor that falls to the Earth's surface. Most precipitation
occurs as rain, but also includes snow, hail, fog drip, graupel, and sleet.
8. Infiltration - Water soaks into subsurface soils and moves into rocks through cracks and
pore spaces.

9. Percolation - Water flows horizontally through the soil and rocks under the influence of
gravity.

Evaporation and transpiration are the two ways water reenters the atmosphere. They are often
combined into a single term, evapotranspiration, or the total water loss to the atmosphere by
both evaporation and transpiration.

II. DISTRIBUTION OF WATER

Surface Water – are bodies of water surface of earth that is exposed to the atmosphere.
Surface waters include rivers, lakes, oceans, etc. Through the process of percolation, some
surface water (especially during a precipitation event) seeps into the ground and becomes
groundwater. Both groundwater and surface water can be used as sources of water for
communities.

Groundwater – waters that are found beneath Earth’s surface and fills the pores in sediments
or the cracks in underground rocks.
III. WATER TREATMENT

Water Treatment – is any process that improves the quality of water to make it more
acceptable for a specific end-use. Many other uses, including being safely returned to the
environment.

Water Treatment Processes:

1. Softening - the process of removing the dissolved calcium and magnesium salts that cause
hardness in water.

2. Coagulation & Flocculation - used to separate the suspended solids portion from the
water. Coagulation and flocculation are two separate processes, used in succession, to
overcome the forces stabilizing the suspended particles. While coagulation neutralizes the
charges on the particles, flocculation enables them to bind together, making them bigger, so
that they can be more easily separated from the liquid.
3. Settling - the process by which particulates settle to the bottom of a liquid and form a
sediment.

4. Filtration - process used to separate solids from liquids and gases using a filter medium
that allows the fluid to pass through but not the solid. The fluid that passes through the filter
is called filtrate.
5. Disinfection - the removal, deactivation or killing of pathogenic microorganisms
accomplished by using disinfectants.

WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Uses of water:

Drinking
Commercial Navigation
Recreation
Fish Propagation
Waste Disposal

Waste water - term used to describe waste material that includes liquid waste and sewage
waste that is collected in towns and urban areas and treated at wastewater treatment plant.

Sewer - an artificial subterranean conduit to carry out sewage and sometimes surface water
(as from rainfall).
Inflow - Additional flow to the wastewater sewers from storm water.
Infiltration – Additional flow to wastewater from groundwater.

Wastewater Treatment - a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater or sewage

to convert it into an effluent that can be either returned to the water cycle with minimal
environmental issues or reused.
I. MAIN AREAS OF WATER TREATMENT

1. Preliminary Treatment - removal of large solids on wastewaters

Common Preliminary Treatment:

Screen - Consists of a series of steel bars that acts as

filter for large solid particles.

Comminutor – a circular grinder designed to grind the

solids coming through the screen into pieces about 0.3
cm (18 in) or smaller. Comminutors can be used in
wastewater treatment to cut up and grind the coarse
solids into smaller sizes so that this will eliminate the
problems caused towards downstream operations
especially clogging happening in pumps.

Girt Chamber – Grit chambers are long

narrow tanks that are designed to slow
down the flow so that solids such as
sand, coffee grounds, and eggshells will
settle out of the water. Grit causes
excessive wear and tear on pumps and
other plant equipment.
2. Primary Treatment - The removal of suspended solids by settling.

Settling Tanks - also known as sedimentation

tanks and clarifiers. It settles as much of the solid
matter as possible. A sedimentation tank allows
suspended particles to settle out of water or
wastewater as it flows slowly through the tank,
thereby providing some degree of purification.

Raw Sludge - The solids that drop to the bottom

of a primary clarifier.

3. Secondary Treatment - The water leaving the primary clarifier has lost much of the
suspended organic matter but still contains a high demand for oxygen due to the dissolved
biodegradable organics. This demand for oxygen must be reduced (energy expended) if the
discharge is to avoid creating unacceptable conditions in the watercourse. The objective of
secondary treatment is to remove BOD while, by contrast, the objective of primary treatment
is to remove solids.
4. Tertiary Treatment - A final cleaning process that improves wastewater quality before it
is reused, recycled or discharge in the environment. Ensure that the treated water which is to
be released on the environment is biologically accepted by all other fresh water organisms
such as weeds and algae. Tertiary treatment is the next wastewater treatment process after
secondary treatment. This step removes stubborn contaminants that secondary treatment
was not able to clean up. Wastewater effluent becomes even cleaner in this treatment
process through the use of stronger and more advanced treatment systems.

5. Sludge Treatment and Disposal – The slurries produced as underflows from the settling
tanks, from both primary treatment and secondary treatment, must be treated and eventually
disposed.

Reference:

Introduction to Environmental Engineering by P. Aarne Vesilind, Susan M.

Morgan, Laurine G. Heine