Systems Design of Wastewater Treatment by Extensive Purification Technologies: Application in Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract

The wastewater treatment system designs in small towns require the use of technologies that imitate the functioning of nature for which the technological complexity and costs of operation and maintenance are minimal. The “land application system”, or “green filter”, represents an alternative way to increase treatment coverage using the ground and plot with cultivated trees as a treatment system. However, an evaluation of the conditions of the area chosen for the study was first necessary. A small town within the state of Chiapas, Mexico was used, and the production of wastewater, precipitation and evapotranspiration of the area were calculated to determine the size of the plot utilizing the water balance methodology. The results achieved were used to determine the differences between the use of the wastewater as a unique hydric contribution to the system, and the inclusion of the precipitation of the area, which duplicated itself in the required surface and requirements for the construction of a “multi-stage green filter” that absorbs the variances of precipitation occurring during the year.