ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Optimizing the Percentage of Sewage
from Septic Tanks for Stable Operation
of a Wastewater Treatment Plant
Piotr Bugajski, Krzysztof Chmielowski, Grzegorz Kaczor
More details
Hide details
Department of Sanitary Engineering and Water Management H. Kołłątaj University of Agriculture in Kraków,
Mickiewicza 24/28, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
Submission date: 2016-01-26
Final revision date: 2016-03-21
Acceptance date: 2016-03-21
Publication date: 2016-07-22
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2016;25(4):1421-1425
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Our paper shows how the quantity and quality of sewage from septic tanks affect the quantity and
quality of mixed sewage undergoing a treatment process. The study was conducted in an exemplary small
sewage system located in a rural commune. It lasted 24 months in 2013-14 and included an analysis of 24
samples of sewage collected both from septic tanks and the sewage system. The aim of the study was to
determine an optimum amount of sewage supplied to the wastewater treatment plant (WTP) by vacuum
trucks that would not cause significant fluctuations in the amount of organic waste expressed as BOD5
and COD in the mixed sewage undergoing the treatment process. Partial correlation analysis showed that
the quality of mixed sewage is to a greater extent affected by the percentage of sewage from septic tanks
than by their pollution degree. The analysis of the effects of two independent variables (i.e., percentage
share and pollution degree of the sewage from septic tanks) on a dependent variable (i.e., organic pollution
of the mixed sewage allowed for a preparation of nomograms useful for forecasting the quality of sewage
undergoing treatment). A simulation carried out for the investigated wastewater treatment plant, whose
average daily treatment capacity was about 230 m3, showed that the amount of septic tank sewage should be
around 11.5 m3·d-1, that is 5% of the WTP capacity.