Title: Feasibility studies of using domestic wastewater for landscape irrigation purposes near a nuclear power plant

Authors: Muhammad Saleem; Usman Jabbar

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, Jubail University College, P.O. Box 10074, 31961, Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia ' Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), P.O. Box # 3183, Karachi-29, Pakistan

Abstract: The current domestic wastewater treatment unit in a local nuclear power plant (Karachi) was found to bring major wastewater parameters to ranges suitable for landscape irrigation purposes according to US-EPA and Jordanian standards, except for TSS, BOD5 and coliforms. The inclusion of a sedimentation basin was found to reduce suspended solids to 30 mg/l and coliform by 40%-50%, which was a relatively insignificant improvement. In order to improve the wastewater treatment facility further, laboratory runs were conducted by passing treated wastewater through a slow sand filtration (SSF) unit for 168 hours. SSF unit was found to reduce TSS by 81.7%, BOD5 by 71.7% and fecal coliforms by 99.75%. As a result, it is recommended to include both a sedimentation basin as well as a SSF unit in the wastewater treatment train in the future to allow treated wastewater from the nuclear power plant to meet international standards for landscape irrigation.

Keywords: treated wastewater; landscape irrigation; nuclear power industry; sedimentation; fecal coliforms; SSF.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEE.2018.094136

International Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2018 Vol.9 No.2, pp.115 - 129

Accepted: 21 Sep 2017
Published online: 17 Aug 2018 *

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