Waste Water

Wastewater, also written as waste water, is any water that has been adversely affected in quality by anthropogenic influence. Municipal wastewater is usually conveyed in a combined sewer or sanitary sewer, and treated at a wastewater treatment plant.

Treated wastewater is discharged into a receiving water via an effluent sewer. Wastewaters generated in areas without access to centralized sewer systems rely on on-site wastewater systems. These typically comprise a septic tank, drain field, and optionally an on-site treatment unit.

Cause of Waste Water

• Wastewater is defined as the water-borne wastes of a community. It contains approximately 99.9% pure water and 0.1% pollutants by weight.

• Wastewater comes from residences, local commercial and light industrial sites, such as clubs, caravan parks, restaurants, commercial laundries, oil company retail outlets and hospitals but it does not include roof water or surface runoff.

Waste Water Treatment Process

• Preliminary Treatment : In preliminary treatment, wastewater is passed through a primary sedimentation tank where solid particles of organic material are removed from the suspension by gravity settling. 

The resultant settled primary sludge is raked to the centre of the tank where it is concentrated and pumped away for further treatment.

• Secondary Treatment: This next stage is a biological process which breaks down dissolved and suspended organic solids by using naturally occurring micro-organisms. It is called the activated sludge process.

Some of this sludge is recycled to the inlet of the aeration tank to maintain the biomass, hence the name for the process – activated sludge. The remainder is pumped to anaerobic digesters for further treatment.

The clarified wastewater is discharged from the secondary clarifier and passes through for Tertiary Treatment.

• Tertiary treatment: Chlorine is usually dosed into the treated wastewater stream for disinfection. However, large ponds are used in which sunlight and other micro-organisms reduce the pathogens. Additional treatment may be required if the treated wastewater is reused for purposes such as irrigation of food crops or where close human contact may result.

• Sludge Treatment : Sludge collected during the treatment process contains a large amount of biodegradable material making it amenable to treatment by a different set of micro-organisms, called anaerobic bacteria, which do not need oxygen for growth.

Why IotaFootPrint?

Iota was established to capture innovation from across the organisation, test and prove ideas and concepts and commercialise successful innovation and technology.

iota is owned and managed by South East Water Limited, one of Australia's leading water utilities.

South East Water oversees the operations of iota through the Corporate and Commercial Group and both business and financial reports are prepared for the Board on a monthly basis.

Contact Us

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Address: 20 Corporate Drive Heatherton, 3202

Website: www.iota-footprint.com.au