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(WRRFS)

Wastewater Treatment And Water

Resource Recovery Facilities
(WRRFs)
by the Water Environment Federation
Updated:
09-10-2020

INTRODUCTION
WITHIN THIS PAGE
 Introduction
 Description
 Emerging Issues
 Relevant Codes, Standards and Guidelines
 Additional Resources

Water is the most valuable natural resource in the world. Municipalities and
military installations must manage and steward wastewater from multiple
potential sources, including sanitary and household, commercial, institutional,
manufacturing, industrial, construction, and storm water. Management and
treatment can vary from small onsite treatment and discharge to large-scale
water resource recovery facilities with collection systems and pumping
stations, treatment processes, oil-water separators, recycling, energy recovery,
and reuse.

The need for community wastewater collection and treatment systems globally is
an evolving one, beginning over 200 years ago in the US. Initially, efforts were
focused on collection and disposal and were driven by the need to reduce human
disease. That era was followed by a focus on the elimination of gross water
pollution effects, allowing native marine organisms to return to normal growth
patterns and allowing full human recreational use. Finally, community wastewater
collection and treatment systems have begun to redefine wastewater as a
resource with valuable products to be extracted through treatment. In the United
States wastewater and storm water treatment discharges are governed by
the Clean Water Act.
As population and climate pressures increase, safe water and water
infrastructure will only become more important. According to the EPA's 2012
Clean Watersheds Needs Survey, 238.2 million people in the United States were
serviced by Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW), with a projected increase
of over 10% by 2032. In excess of 300 billion cubic meters of municipal
wastewater is produced annually in the world. The desire to protect human
health, recover and conserve resources while adapting to a changing landscape,
including new technologies and aging infrastructure, will drive more advanced
wastewater treatment. With the ability to recover valuable resources from
wastewater, such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and biogas, as well as conserving
water for reuse, drinking, agriculture, cooling or industrial use, POTWs are now
aptly referred to as water resource recovery facilities as they continue to recover
valuable resources through wastewater treatment.

Part of a wastewater treatment facility

DESCRIPTION
Wastewater Collections Systems
Collections Systems refer to the system of underground pipes and maintenance
structures that transport wastewater to water resource recovery facilities. These
systems include gravity pipes, manholes, lift stations, force mains and more as
they collect and transport residential and commercial waste.
An aerated lagoon

Putting biosolids to work in agriculture

Storm water runoff during an intense storm

Wastewater Treatment Processes
Wastewater treatment refers to the removal of pollutants from wastewater before
discharge to a waterbody. This includes physical processes such as
sedimentation and filtration, chemical processes such as precipitation and
biological processes like aerated lagoons or activated sludge.
Resource Recovery
Water resource recovery facilities present a unique opportunity to reduce energy
demands, lower costs and increase production of renewable energy by creating
valuable products out of traditional waste streams. For water resource recovery
facilities, these resources include water, energy, nutrients (phosphorus and
nitrogen) and biosolids.
Biosolids
Biosolids are the nutrient rich organic material resulting from the treatment of
domestic waste at a water resource recovery facility. Through biosolids
management, solid residue from wastewater treatment is processed to reduce or
eliminate pathogens and minimize odors, forming a safe, beneficial agricultural
product in accordance with regulatory requirements that can be used as fertilizer
and other products.
Storm Water
Storm water refers to a heavy quantity of water, such as rain or snow, that falls to
the surface of the Earth which becomes polluted as it picks up, carries, and
transports various pollutants (oil, grease, chemicals, sediment, nutrients,
pathogens) along streets, drains, open channels, and storm sewer systems. Most
of the untreated runoff eventually is discharged into nearby waterbodies.
However, in combined sewer systems, storm water flows with wastewater and is
treated at a water resource recovery facility.
Oil-Water Separation
Oil-water separation refers to the physical separation of oil-water mixtures into
their separate components. Oil-water separators vary widely and are chosen
based on performance parameters and operation conditions. Proper oil-water
separation is necessary to prevent contamination to storm sewer and sanitary
sewer systems.

EMERGING ISSUES
Storm Water
Storm water is a growing source of water pollution in many watersheds across
the country. As urban areas grow and severe weather becomes more common,
the issue of storm water management will only escalate in importance because of
decreases in natural land cover and the expansion of impervious surfaces, such
as rooftops, sidewalks and roadways. These surfaces exacerbate runoff because
they change the permeability of the landscape — preventing rainwater from
soaking in or infiltrating the soil.
Resource Recovery
The concept of a circular economy has steadily been gaining traction in recent
years, especially in the water sector, with the idea of taking wastewater and
creating valuable products while reducing the amount of waste produced. Water
resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) directly contribute to a circular economy by
producing clean water, nutrients, renewable energy, and other valuable bio-
based materials from wastewater.
Microconstituents
As a result of today's modern lifestyle and the widespread use of organic
chemicals, large amounts of chemical residues from industries, agriculture, and
homes are being continuously released in the environment, some of which find
their way into municipal wastewater. A few examples of microconstituents that
can be found in the environment are pharmaceuticals, personal care and
consumer products (PPCPs), pesticides, cleaning materials, chemicals used in
building materials, additives in foods and drinks, chemicals used for printing, and
more. Although many microconstituents that reach WRRFs are destroyed
through wastewater treatment and solids processing, some recalcitrant
microconstituents and their metabolites may pass through the treatment process
intact and may end up in the effluent or biosolids. In general, wastewater
influents contain microconstituents in concentrations ranging from nano-g/L to
micro-g/L, in effluent from non-detect to nano-g/L, and in biosolids the
concentrations vary from micro-g/kg to mg/kg.
Climate Change
Climate change has directly impacted water resources by altering precipitation
patterns, severe drought and floods, snowpack amount, elevation, streamflow,
and rising sea levels. This has created a direct need for utilities to manage local
water resources to lessen the potential impact of climate change. By increasing
water reuse, developing resiliency and other actions, WRRFs can be a leader in
fighting and preparing for climate change effects.

The impacts of climate change can be seen in these two images with flooding and
erosion.
Photo Credits: U.S. EPA

Creating Resilient Water Utilities

As extreme weather events become more common, it is ever increasingly
important for utilities to increase their resilience to such events. Creating
Resilient Water Utilities is an EPA initiative that provides wastewater and storm
water utilities with a planning process to improve resilience. It includes a risk
assessment, case studies and the tools needed to develop an individualized
resilient strategy guide.
Aging Infrastructure
To adequately treat wastewater and manage storm water, the public treatment
work systems must continue to operate. As the infrastructure, largely built 50
years ago, begins to age and deteriorate, untreated water will discharge into the
environment and the costs to repair will increase rapidly. A proactive, continuous
improvement system must be adopted to combat these issues. In addition to
ensuring proper wastewater treatment, updating aging infrastructure can create
jobs and help offset future lost sales and GDP.
Security and Resilience for the Water Sector: Water and Wastewater Sector
Specific Plan
Providing effective wastewater treatment is critical to prevent disease, protect the
environment and ensure life and the economy continues as is. To ensure security
and resiliency for the water and wastewater sectors, partnerships between public
and private utilities, national and state associations, state and local governments,
research foundations and federal agencies are necessary. These partnerships
must promote collaboration as these organizations prepare to prevent, detect
and respond to physical and cyberattacks, other intentional acts and natural
disasters.
The Clean Watersheds Needs Survey
The Clean Watersheds Needs Survey is conducted every four years by the EPA,
states, territories and the District of Columbia. The survey collects information
about publicly owned wastewater collection and treatment facilities, storm water
and combined sewer overflows control facilities, non-point source pollution
control projects and decentralized wastewater management. The survey provides
a thorough examination of the capital costs needed to meet the Clean Water Act
standards and address water quality and water quality related public health
concerns.
Envision
Envision provides a consensus-based framework to assess sustainability and
resilience in wastewater infrastructure. As a program, it defines the sustainable
infrastructure standard, incentivizes programs to go above and beyond minimum
requirements, recognizes programs that excel and has developed a common
language for internal and external partners to clearly communicate. Overall,
Envision's framework ensures sustainable choices are made when planning,
designing and constructing infrastructure.

RELEVANT CODES, STANDARDS AND

GUIDELINES
 The Clean Water Act
 Earthquake Resilience Guide for Water and Wastewater Utilities
 UFC 3-240-01 Wastewater Treatment and Collection

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Organizations
 EPA Office of Wastewater Management
 National Green Infrastructure Certification Program (NGICP)
 Storm Water Institute
 Sustainable Sites Initiative
 U.S. Green Building Council

Topics:
Wastewater Systems

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