Publications Repository - Gdańsk University of Technology

Water and wastewater management, especially in rural areas, greatly affects loads of nutrients discharged to the Baltic Sea. In Poland, this management is unbalanced because of the dispersed development and in many locations con struction of sewerage system is uneconomic or even impossible. For this reason, a significant part of sewage from single-family houses in rural areas must be discharged into domestic sewage systems. The aim of this paper was to analyze the data concerning the Baltic Sea catchment area as well as to present some current results of research on wastewater management mainly in rural areas. Small on-site wastewater treatment plants are usually defined as facilities serving up to 50 people. Depending on the law, their maximum capacity is set at 5 m 3 d_1 (according to the Polish Act of Water Law). In rural areas, treatment wetlands seem to be especially useful as on-site wastewater treatment plants. The study indicates the high efficiency of pollutants removal in treatment wetlands, namely, hybrid treatment wetlands with at least two stages of treatment. High treatment efficiency is very important for the protection of the Baltic Sea. The reliability assessment based on Weibull distributions allows for the risk assessment of exceeding the limit values of pollutants in treated wastewater. Very good reliability was observed for TN and COD (303 and 292 day per year, respectively), while reliability for BOD5 and TSS was weaker (219 and 153 day per year, respectively). Proper design and operation of treatment wetland facilities are important in order to achieve a good quality of effluent in the interests of Baltic Sea protection.

Authors

• dr hab Krzysztof Jóźwiakowski,
• prof. dr hab. inż. Magdalena Gajewska link open in new tab ,
• dr Michał Marzec,
• Magdalena Gizińska-Górna,
• mgr Aneta Pytka,
• dr Alina Kowalczyk-Juśko,
• Bozena Sosnowska,
• Stanisław Baran,
• mgr inż Arkadiusz Malik,
• Robert Kufel