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Chapter 3

Sewage treatment

3.1 Introduction

The waste disposed of by domestic households and industry is conveyed to the

treatment works by means of pipes (sewers). The arrangement of sewers is known
as the sewerage system. Everything that flows in the sewers is sewage. These terms
are often confused in practice.
In a traditionally combined sewer, all sewage, both foul and surface water, is
conveyed in a single pipe. A foul sewer conveys the ‘nasties’; i.e. contaminated
water. A surface water sewer conveys the runoff from roofs and paved areas.
Concerning separate systems, two pipes are laid in the trench for the sewerage
system; one for the foul sewer, and the second for the surface water. This book is
predominantly concerned with the treatment of urban runoff.
The flow in a sewer can be estimated with Eq. (3.1.1). The mean domestic
water consumption is typically 140 l/h/d for rural and 230 l/h/d for urban areas.

DWF = PQ + I + E (3.1.1)

where,
 
QT
DWF = averaged total flow in 24 h (dry weather flow) 24 ;
P = population;
Q = mean domestic water consumption;
I = rate of infiltration;
E = industrial effluent discharge to the pipe; and
QT = total volume of flow in a 24-h period.
12 Wetland systems to control urban runoff

3.2 Design flow rates

Normally, at sewage treatment works, flows up to 3 dry weather flow (DWF) are
given full treatment; >6 DWF (since they are diluted by the surface water) require
only preliminary treatment. Flows between 3 and 6 DWF are stored temporarily
and given full treatment.
However, care needs to be taken in the design of overflow structures, particu-
larly for flows >6 DWF. These must be designed such that the outflow from them
has a minimum impact on the receiving water; in particular, care must be taken
with the solid material, which occurs in the so-called first ‘foul flush’; i.e. imme-
diately after the rainfall storm commences, accumulated material in the sewer is
likely to be flushed out of the system.

3.3 Treatment principles

Typically, raw sewage contains 99.9% water and 0.1% solids. The sewage treat-
ment process is fundamentally about separating solids from the water. The
treatment of solids and sludge forms an important and costly area of sewage
treatment. The impurities in the sewage can be categorised as follows:
• Floating or suspended solids (e.g., paper, rags, grit and faecal solids);
• Colloidal solids (e.g., organics and micro-organisms);
• Dissolved solids (e.g., organics and inorganic salts); and
• Dissolved gases (e.g., hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide).
These impurities are removed from the sewage using operations or processes,
which are either physical, chemical or biological in nature. Physical opera-
tions depend on the physical properties of the impurity for efficient removal;
e.g., screening, filtration and sedimentation. Chemical operations depend on the
chemical properties of the impurity and those that utilise the chemical proper-
ties of additives for efficient removal; e.g., coagulation, precipitation and ion
exchange. Biological processes utilise biochemical and/or biological reactions
to remove soluble or colloidal organic impurities; e.g., percolating filters and
activated sludge.

3.4 Engineering classification of sewage treatment stages

Wastewater engineers tend to describe the sewage treatment process in terms of

the stages of treatment as shown below:
• Preliminary treatment (physical); e.g., screening and grit removal;
• Primary treatment (physical and/or chemical); e.g., sedimentation and flotation;
Sewage treatment 13

• Secondary treatment (biological and/or chemical); e.g., constructed wetlands,

biological filters and the activated sludge process; and
• Tertiary treatment (physical and/or chemical and/or biological); e.g., polishing
wetlands, micro-straining, grass plots and lime precipitation).
At the secondary treatment stage, either percolating filters or activated sludge
treatment is usually present, certainly not both in parallel. On occasions, when
treating industrial wastes, they may both be used, but always in series. It should be
noted that sludge is produced at the majority of the treatment stages. However, in
normal practice, the works are organised such that all sludge is collected centrally.
Wetland systems can be designed for each engineering stage, and for sludge
treatment. However, constructed treatment wetlands are usually applied for
secondary or tertiary treatment stages. Wetlands integrated in sustainable urban
drainage systems (SUDS) are frequently used for preliminary and primary
treatment purposes. Urban runoff requires full treatment, which is usually not
the case in practice, unless for combined sewer systems and minor storms.