CE 428 Water and Wastewater Treatment Design

Lecture 1- Wastewater Flows

Dr. S.K. Ong

Wastewater Flows: (see Table 3-1 to 3-5 for Design sewage flows)
Domestic

Commercial

Industrial

Infiltration and Inflow

Storm Water

Domestic
- on a per capita basis, most state regulatory agencies accept a rate of 100 gal/capita/day (gpcd) or
380 liters/capita/day (lcd).
However, the gal/capita/day deceases with the number of persons per household - example for 2
two person household, the flowrate is 76 gal/capita/day (see Table 3-1).
- can be estimated based on water consumption records, about 70 to 80% of domestic water
consumption - will be less if lawn sprinkling is high
Commercial Establishments (Table 3-2, 3-3)
- flows vary on type of establishment, ex., hospitals, hotels, schools
Industrial Wastewater Flow
- generally determined by survey, some flows are given in books
- can use water consumption as an approximate estimate
- most municipal wastewater treatment plants require some pretreatment before wastewater can be
discharged (US EPA Pretreatment Program)
- different effluent standards for different industries
- industries typically pay a fee based on the BOD load going into the sewer
Storm Water
- water from precipitation and surface runoff
3 types of sewer for collection of wastewater
- Sanitary domestic and industrial wastewater plus infiltration/inflow (I/I) and delivered to a sewage
treatment plant
- Storm sewers collect stormwater and discharge without treatment to streams, rivers or oceans
(first flush is usually elevated in BOD, SS and chloride)
- Combined sewers sanitary and stormwater to treatment plants
- generally found in older cities where wastewater and stormwater were originally
collected and discharged to the river
- for WWTP, generally treat dry weather flow but will bypass the treatment during wet
weather flow (not allowed now)
- build equalization basins to provide storage during wet weather flow or have primary
settling only followed by chlorination
Infiltration and Inflow (I/I)
- infiltration - water entering a sewer system through sewer service connections, eg.,
seepage from groundwater through defective pipes, pipe joints, manhole walls and
connections
- Inflow water discharged into a sewer, eg., from manhole covers (during a storm or car
washing), and cross connections from storm sewers
- usually about 200 1000 gpd/mile/in. of pipe diameter or 20 3,000 gallon/acre/day
or about 10% of average flow rate
Flows for Design
Design Average flow rate averages of the daily flows to be received for a continuous 12-month period
Design Average Daily flow rate 24-hour average for all sources
Design Maximum Daily flow rate or Peak Daily Design flow rate
- usually 2 to 2.25 times the design average daily flow rate (see Figure)
Design Peak Hourly Flow largest volume of flow to be received during a one hour period
(see notes, Section 14.4.5, ADW, AWW, MWW, PHWW)