Reusing Treated Wastewater on a Plantation

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Please advise how to reuse treated wastewater and how dirty it can be so that it can be used at a plantation.

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23 Answers

  1. Hi. Researcher. Its best to have wwt plant effluent at a level of 30 - 50 ppm of BOD.. pH 7.5 - 8.0 and others as low as possible. Also the plantation is fine for lawns. flower plants. If vegetables are grown and used raw or salads. Its best taken in cooked or deep fried mode .. w wshs .. Prof Ajit Seshadri . Vels University. Chennai ..

  2. You need to contact water quality analysis before you can use treated wastewater. Some of treated water contain more nutrients, that can lead to ground water pollution, and it can lead to waterborne diseases.

  4.  Dear Sudarat Yoo-em,

    The amount of contaminations in treated wastewater should not exceed the amount of contaminations established by standart for soils in each country, taking into account a number of factors. I advise you to contact the environmental authorities of your country.

  5. Depends entirely on the type of crop orif you are using it for landscaping. Crops eaten raw for example have different standards especially for Total and Faecal Coliforms. Unfortunately varies from country to country so you will have to check locally. If for landscaping, Plants are highly adaptable so the BOD should not be a problem nor should the COD if from domestic only sources. Amount of water, phosphates, nitrates will determine what plants can grow.

  8. Hi. Outlet of wwt plant can be used if the BOD is less than 30ppm & e coli and others are nil. In any case the 1st set of beds in yr plantation serves as phyto remedy. Only the veggies are not recommnd to be eaten raw..ie not like in salads.. It is best deep fried and takrn if the wwt effluent is not tested.. w wshs ..Prof. Ajit Seshadri. Vels University. Chennai.

  9. its industrial waste with high levels of heavy metals, phenols, ammonia and other chemicals, I suggest not to use them.  but if its farm waste or biological waste, it depends on the crop too.  in california, waste water from wineries can be used for irrigation at levels of below 250.  most i have seen are at bod below 80 and most are below 50.  and as for nitrogen, you have to do some pencil pushing but the limit is usually at 150 lbs an acre or 150 kgs there abouts per hectare per year.    the quality of nitrogen also is important.  because if its mostly ammonia, the crops die.  and if its mostly nitrates,  farmers tend to experience a lot of weeds.  so again, you have to do some pencil pushing and augment ammonia with nitrate heavy waste water and vice versa.   and please ignore the people who says not to use water with high levels of boron.  its actually good for  the crops.    its good to recycle as much as possible.  

  10. Hi,

    I read all the comments but according to my experience first you have to see whether this wastewater from domestic source or industrial source because domestic sewage shall be treated with biological process, then sedimentation under Secondary phase, then shall pass through tertiary phase to bring BOD & TSS both 10 mg/l and treated effluent must be free of pathogenic bacteria then its safe for reuse.

    In industrial wastewater you have to study the source carefully means its from chemical, textile, paper, food based industries, dairies etc. because each & every industry the quality of Raw Effluent will be different based on their process but the end result of treated effluent shall be the same as I mentioned above. But in industrial waste another parameter monitoring is also essential i.e. heavy metals.

  12. Hello your approach is far too simplistic as if it was enough to want to recycle sewage to make it happen.

    First of all it is important to materialize waste water: their origin, their content, their volume, their pollution.

    Then with which treatment tool will you perform the purification then the objective on which the liquid after treatment will be dispersed

    If the outlet on which the liquid is dispersed at the end of the treatment is biological-it is necessary that your purification tool be-biological-and that the sewage is entirely-biological-.

    The closer the treatment tool is to the place of waste water production, the more these wastewaters will keep their characteristic-biological-.

    Same for the dispersal zone. The outlet must be at the end of the treatment site and the discharge must be permanently on this outlet.

     

     

  13. Treated wastewater from off-site treatment plants can be reused for irrigation of parks and gardens, agriculture and horticulture, tree plantation and aquaculture, if these exist or can be established not far from the wastewater treatment plants. For these purposes the wastewater should generally be treated to secondary wastewater standard (< 20 mg/L BOD and < 30 mg/L SS). Total coliforms should be < 1000 organisms per 100 mL for irrigation by spraying. When sub-surface irrigation is used this requirement may not be necessary. A period of non-entry to irrigated sites may need to be observed, particularly for wastewater-irrigated parks and gardens. Irrigation of vegetables for direct human consumption requires a much stricter guideline.

    Farmers and local communities have developed most reuse systems; the primary motivating factor has been reuse of nutrients for food production rather than wastewater treatment, and with scant attention to either waste treatment or to public health. In most aquaculture systems,

    As wastewater provides a source of nutrients for aquaculture, it is technically feasible to link it up with most sanitation technologies, providing that land is available at reasonable cost. Farmers have learned by experience how to culture fish, first in static-water night soil-fed ponds and more recently in conventional wastewater-fed fishponds.

  14. You can use it after disinfection with Atlantium’s HOD-UV syste

  15. You need to be careful with E-coli bacteria counts, also follow the environmental stadards for your country. No heavy metals or toxic waste, organic waste is fine with final disinfection.

  18. Hi Sudarat.

    I agree with all the comments below, therefore, before to decide what to do you have to check which type of wastewater do you have (domestico or industrial?), if there are some specific regulation in your country for reuse of treated wastewater, and for which plantation are you aimed to reuse the treated wastewater. 

    Anyway, a interesting low cost solution is constructed wetlantd+ disinfection unit (such as UV lamp). The disinfection unit can be used or not depending on the final plantation. Indeed, if you follow the WHO guidelines, you can reuse the treated WW for processed food plantation with a limit of E.coli of 10000 cfu, which is deliverable with only nature-based solutions.

  19. Please you have to refer to your country standards for wastewater reuse for agriculture which include all parameters (biological, chemical, and heavy metals) with limits. Treated wastewater  had to be compliant, it depend on what type of plants you want to use e.g. eaten raw vegetables or cooked, or used for parks or for the forests.

  21. The waste water has to be purified from chemicals as soape and other chems as Cl. then the natural particles can feed the crops 

  22. The first thing that should be done is to check the BOD/COD levels of the treated wastewater. There are many real world examples in which treated wastewater is being used successfully in agriculture. But, it depends on what plantation you are considering it for. Get the water tested for heavy metals as well. If the treated wastewater suffices the maximum permissible limits of elements in the water to be used in that plantation, then it is fit for use. Soil should also be tested, because treated wastewater still contains some elements which may interfere with the nutrients in the soil.

    You can transport the water through open channels constructed from the discharge point to the field, from where you can use pump to withdraw the water.

  23. Hi Sudarat Yoo-em,
    What type of wastewater is it? The answer will greatly depend on whether the wastewater is e.g. domestic or industrial.

    2 Comments

    1. Thank you Marina and Guy, I would like to know limitation of toxic that we can put on our plantation such as Nitrogen, BOD etc.

    2. Good day to you Marina.  FYI " the type of waste water is not important." What microbial group/s used to breakdown the compounds and their final state as an elemental are important.  I do have the UNEP report on the top toxins cleaned using microbes instead of any chemical or filtered membrane.  I have not yet learned how to send photos and official reports on this site.  I would be happy to send you a copy of this UN report.  Take care.