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Assessing Boat Waste Impacts on Small Wastewater Treatment Plant Operations - Dr. Heidi Gough 

10-05-2023 10:26 AM

With implementation of the Clean Vessel Act Wastewater Project, it is important to determine potential impacts of pump-out wastewater from recreational boats on wastewater treatment plant operations. In the past, recreational boat waste tanks were often discharged directly into the surrounding water. As more boat waste is diverted from open water disposal, wastewater treatment plants located near pump-out facilities are often asked to accept this additional waste stream. Since many boating activities take place in remote areas, many potentially impacted wastewater treatment facilities are small (<0.1 MGD) so projected influents have potential to cause substantial impact to facility operations.
 
In this study, boat waste is characterized from pump-out facilities on the Salish Sea (located in the northwest corner of Washington State, USA). Impacts on activated sludge function of shock loading up to 10% boat-waste volumes were evaluated. Measured concentrations showed boat waste to contain 60× the ammonia, 10× the chemical oxygen demand (COD), 20× the reactive phosphorus, 15× the salinity, and 7× the total suspended solids (TSS) of typical sewered wastewater. When added to activated sludge, boat waste often increased oxygen uptake rates, settleability, and foaming. These responses were primarily linked to boat-waste strength, although deodorants added by boat owners were also implicated. Quadrupole time-of-flight liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/Q ToF-MS) was used to compare organic compounds within boat waste and three common deodorant products. These results documented that shock-loading boat waste can create conditions leading to treatment upset and that results differ between sources of activated sludge.
 
Continued research is required to evaluate the potential for adaptation of activated sludge microbial communities to boat-waste impacts, including high-nitrogen ammonia loadings.

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