An investigation into the role of treatment performance and soil characteristics of soil-based wastewater treatment systems

Abstract

Abstract Soil-based onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) are becoming more important for the treatment and disposal of wastewater in areas that do not have central wastewater collection and treatment systems. However, there are concerns that OWTS may have adverse effects on public health and environment. The purpose of this study is to treat wastewater using a natural soil column in order to evaluate treatment system performance. Wastewater was applied to two different natural soils at different flow rates of 9, 18 and 36 L/day. The treatment performances of wastewater and geotechnical properties of the natural soils were examined. As a result of this study, the percentage of COD and SS removal in wastewater after soil column filtration ranged from 36.2% to 80.5% and 84.4% to 97.9% respectively. pH values of wastewater after the filtration were measured at between 7.75 and 8.12. TP and TN removal rates were found in the range of 23.9–76.8% and 12.4–83.0%, respectively. The column effluent water was classified as both ‘high hardness class’ in terms of hardness and ‘polluted water’ in terms of conductivity. Column effluent water was found in ‘low, medium, and high hazard’ classes in terms of SAR. Whereas the PL values of the natural soils were found to increase by up to 4.8% in the filtration area, specific gravity decreased by nearly 1.1%. The values of LL, PI, maximum dry density, optimum water content, and permeability changed depending on the soil type. The UCS of the natural soils after wastewater filtration decreased by about 5.9%. It was concluded that natural soils have positive effects on treatment of wastewater in a short time.