Reed bed treatment systems for sewage treatment in the United Kingdom - the first 10 years’ experience

1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Cooper ◽  
B. Green
Keyword(s):  
Root Zone ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Horizontal Flow ◽  
Water Industry ◽  
Soil Systems ◽  
Design Changes ◽  
Flow Systems ◽  
Group A ◽  
Reed Bed ◽  
The Uk

The UK Water Industry first became interested in Reed Bed Treatment Systems for sewage in 1985. Early problems were experienced with soil-based horizontal-flow systems of the Root Zone type. The problems were overcome by national co-ordination of a development programme and international co-operation by an EC Expert Contact Group. A number of different types of systems have now been developed and the systems are now being accepted. The paper reviews the development of these systems for secondary and tertiary treatment and nitrification and mentions development of systems for other forms of treatment. The design changes made to overcome the problems are described. These include the gradual move to the use of gravel-based systems because of the difficulty experienced with over-land flow in the soil systems. The sizing of the systems is described together with performance data for the original horizontal-flow and the more recently developed vertical-flow systems. Treatment at secondary and tertiary levels is illustrated and the potential for nitrification. Early problems with reed growth have been overcome by planting with port-grown seedlings. After 10 years the process is generally accepted by the Water Industry as an appropriate treatment for villages and there are now between 200 and 300 systems in operation.

Design of a Hybrid Reed Bed System to Achieve Complete Nitrification and Denitrification of Domestic Sewage

1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Cooper ◽  
Paul Griffin ◽  
Stuart Humphries ◽  
Adrian Pound
Keyword(s):  
Horizontal Flow ◽  
Vertical Flow ◽  
Total N ◽  
Reed Beds ◽  
Loading Rates ◽  
Flow Systems ◽  
Reed Bed ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Sludge Drying ◽  
Complete Nitrification

The design of vertical-flow (VF) reed beds is reviewed and the performance of the few worldwide existing hybrid systems, combining both horizontal- and vertical-flow beds, is assessed. Horizontal-flow (HF) beds are good for suspended solids removal and will remove BOD5 up to a set loading. Vertical-flow beds can achieve BOD5 removal at much higher loading rates and they are capable of complete nitrification as tertiary or secondary treatment systems. It is possible to achieve biological denitrification in horizontal-flow beds. By combining horizontal- and vertical-flow systems in the appropriate process sequence it is thus possible to produce a system which removes BOD5, TSS and achieves complete nitrification as well as substantial removal of nitrate and hence a lowered Total N. The paper discusses the possible process options for combining horizontal- and vertical-flow systems. One example of these systems will be described in more detail. This is a flexible hybrid system being built by Severn Trent Water. Designed to treat the flow for a small village with a population of 129 it will have vertical-flow beds followed by horizontal-flow beds. The design allows for flexibility such that the size of the vertical-flow and horizontal-flow stages can be altered (for experimental purposes) to allow the design arrangement to be stressed and performance evaluated with the intention of defining the optimum loading rates for each of the stages. The same site also has sludge drying reed beds for treating the primary sludge.

The use of Reed Bed Treatment Systems in the UK

1990 ◽  
Vol 22 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 57-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Cooper ◽  
J. A. Hobson ◽  
Carol Findlater
Keyword(s):  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Performance Data ◽  
Growth Media ◽  
The Past ◽  
Planting Methods ◽  
Length Width ◽  
British Experience ◽  
Reed Bed ◽  
The Uk

This paper summarises the British experience of Reed Bed Treatment Systems (RBTS) for sewage treatment over the past three years. It includes a list of the 26 systems which have been built together with their design details including, length, width, slope, media and the loading that they are designed for. Comment is made about the use of soil and gravel growth media. Different inlet and outlet arrangements are described. The alternative propagation and planting methods are reviewed. The paper closes with the performance data from a number of the UK systems. The performance of the British beds indicates that RBT Systems may be adequate for BOD and SS removal but the removal of phosphorus and nitrogen is not as high as predicted elsewhere.

Sewage Treatment in Helophyte Beds–First Experiences with a New Treatment Procedure

1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Bucksteeg
Keyword(s):  
Waste Water ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Waste Water Treatment ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Uptake Capacity ◽  
Humid Climate ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Trickling Filters ◽  
Operation Conditions

Waste water treatment in helophyte beds under humid climate conditions has been favoured by some German ecologists for some years. The idea is to cause waste water to flow horizontally through the root zone of helophytes to achieve satisfactory effluent properties. There exist many highly different proposals regarding the choice of soil and helophytes to be applied, bed area, design of inlets and outlets and operation conditions. A few plants have been operated in practice for some years. It appears that clogging is one of the main problems occurring in these plants. The hydraulic uptake capacity of soil is discussed in Darcy's law. Comparisons with observations of plants in operation are drawn. The interactions between soil properties, its uptake capacity, BOD5-, COD-, N- and P-reduction are evaluated. The effluent results of helophyte beds are compared with those of low-loaded trickling filters and of ponds used for sewage treatment in small villages in rural areas of Germany. It has been proved that the total construction costs of sewage treatment plants with helophyte beds used as the biological stage are higher when compared with those of conventional plants in general.

Institutional developments, standards and river quality: a UK history and some lessons for industrialising countries

1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. M. Johnstone ◽  
N. J. Horan
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Aquatic Environment ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Integrated Management ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Process Manufacturing ◽  
Treatment And Disposal ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Developed World

From the middle ages until the early part of the nineteenth century the streets of European cities were foul with excrement and filth to the extent that aristocrats often held a clove-studded orange to their nostrils in order to tolerate the atmosphere. The introduction in about 1800 of water-carriage systems of sewage disposal merely transferred the filth from the streets to the rivers. The problem was intensified in Britain by the coming of the Industrial Revolution and establishment of factories on the banks of the rivers where water was freely available for power, process manufacturing and the disposal of effluents. As a consequence the quality of most rivers deteriorated to the extent that they were unable to support fish life and in many cases were little more than open sewers. This was followed by a period of slow recovery, such that today most of these rivers have been cleaned with many having good fish stocks and some even supporting salmon. This recovery has not been easy nor has it been cheap. It has been based on the application of good engineering supported by the passing and enforcement of necessary legislation and the development of suitable institutional capacity to finance, design, construct, maintain and operate the required sewerage and sewage treatment systems. Such institutional and technical systems not only include the disposal of domestic sewage but also provisions for the treatment and disposal of industrial wastewaters and for the integrated management of river systems. Over the years a number of institutional arrangements and models have been tried, some successful other less so. Although there is no universally applicable approach to improving the aquatic environment, many of the experiences encountered by the so-called developed world can be learned by developing nations currently attempting to rectify their own aquatic pollution problems. Some of these lessons have already been discussed by the authors including some dangers of copying standards from the developed world. The objective of this paper is to trace the steps taken over many years in the UK to develop methods and systems to protect and preserve the aquatic environment and from the lessons learned to highlight what is considered to be an appropriate and sustainable approach for industrialising nations. Such an approach involves setting of realistic and attainable standards, providing appropriate and affordable treatment to meet these standards, establishment of the necessary regulatory framework to ensure enforcement of the standards and provision of the necessary financial capabilities to guarantee successful and continued operation of treatment facilities.

Constructed reed beds: appropriate technology for small communities

1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. B. Green ◽  
J. Upton
Keyword(s):  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Appropriate Technology ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Reed Beds ◽  
Small Communities ◽  
Operational Information ◽  
Reed Bed ◽  
Small Sites ◽  
Very High

Reed bed treatment is put in the context of a major water company’s need to provide reliable, high quality, effluents from small sewage treatment works whilst seeking to minimise running costs. Design and operational information is given for reed bed applications in Severn Trent Water. Performance details are provided for application to secondary, tertiary and storm overflow treatment. The results give particular confidence in the system’s ability to deliver very high quality effluents when used for tertiary treatment, the company’s biggest application. Reed beds work well against less demanding criteria for secondary treatment at small sites and show great promise for storm overflow treatment.

scholarly journals Dead in the water: comment on “Development of an aquatic exposure assessment model for imidacloprid in sewage treatment plant discharges arising from use of veterinary medicinal products”

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Perkins ◽  
Martin Whitehead ◽  
Dave Goulson
Keyword(s):  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Sewage Treatment Plant ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Implicit Assumption ◽  
Small Contribution ◽  
Medicinal Products ◽  
Ecotoxicological Thresholds ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Veterinary Medicinal Products

AbstractAnthe et al. (Environ Sci Eur 32:147, 2020. 10.1186/s12302-020-00424-4) develop a mathematical model to calculate the contribution of veterinary medicinal products (VMPs) to the levels of imidacloprid observed in the UK water monitoring programme. They find that VMPs make only a very small contribution to measured pollution levels, and that the estimated concentrations do not exceed ecotoxicological thresholds. However, shortcomings in methodology—including the implicit assumption that imidacloprid applied to pets is available for release to the environment for 24 h only and failure to incorporate site-specific sewage effluent data relating to measured levels—raise questions about their conclusions. Adjusting for these and other deficiencies, we find that their model appears consistent with the conclusion that emissions from VMPs may greatly exceed ecotoxicological thresholds and contribute substantially to imidacloprid waterway pollution in the UK. However, the model utilises imidacloprid emissions fractions for animals undergoing the different scenarios (for example, bathing) that are extrapolated from unpublished studies that do not clearly resemble the modelled scenarios, with insufficient evidence provided to support their derivation. As a result, we find that the model presented by Anthe et al. provides no reliable conclusions about the contribution of veterinary medicinal products to the levels of imidacloprid in UK waterways.

The role of experts in the development of recovery handbooks: UK and European experience

2021 ◽  
pp. 014664532110109
Author(s):  
A.F. Nisbet
Keyword(s):  
Chernobyl Accident ◽  
European Network ◽  
Technical Aspects ◽  
Protective Actions ◽  
Broader Impacts ◽  
European Experience ◽  
Group A ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Initial Focus

The importance of involving experts in the development of strategies for managing areas contaminated as a result of a nuclear accident is now well recognised. Following the Chernobyl accident in 1986, the initial focus, quite understandably, was on the technical aspects of reducing doses to the affected population. Subsequently, work carried out in the UK and elsewhere in Europe looked at the broader impacts of protective actions on agriculture, the environment, and society. From 1997, a group of experts from academia, government, and non-government organisations met regularly in the UK to debate these issues. One of the outputs included the first version of the UK Recovery Handbook for Radiation Incidents in 2005. Based on the success of the UK group, a European network of experts was established, leading to the development of European handbooks in 2009. The UK handbooks are living documents that are updated regularly with substantive input from experts.

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