Waste water respirometry solutions for toxicity based consents - Water and Wastewater
Water companies, water authorities or publicly-owned treatment works (POTW) need to have some knowledge of the composition of the wastes they it receive. In addition to testing for ammonia and BOD or COD levels, treatment works can license industrial discharges on the basis of concentrations of some of the known toxic compounds. However, it is recognised that very many non-regulated toxic materials still enter the treatment works and reduce the efficiency of biodegradation, and may cause toxic shock. The way is now open for more widespread use of direct toxicity tests as a basis for toxicity-based consents. Samples of the industrial effluent are collected at source, for testing on the actual bacteria of the receiving activated sludge. The tests used are the Respiration Inhibition Test and the Nitrification Inhibition Test. Note that this approach mirrors that of the regulators of discharges to receiving waters, who are now using direct toxicity tests (DTA) or whole effluent toxicity tests (WET tests) in order to protect the receiving environment.