Abstract
Wastewater contains a wide range of hazardous and non-hazardous constituents. If not properly treated, wastewater discharge or reuse can cause serious public health outcomes, such as outbreaks of infectious diseases and acute and chronic toxicity events. This chapter first describes an overview of the health effects associated with potentially hazardous wastewater constituents including microbial pathogens and toxic chemicals, and their impacts in different wastewater management scenarios, including discharge, agricultural reuse, non-potable reuse, and indirect and direct potable reuse. Naturally, different wastewater management scenarios represent different types of hazards to different groups of populations. For example, wastewater irrigation affects farmers and their families, surrounding communities, and consumers, while urban non-potable reuse, such as recreational impoundments, can pose a health risk on facility users through direct contact and accidental ingestion. The second part of this chapter focuses on the impact of wastewater treatment on hazard reduction. Various conventional, advanced, and low-rate treatment systems are covered, and conceptual treatment schemes for achieving various effluent/reclaimed water qualities suitable for safe discharge and reuse are presented. In order to encourage more aggressive water reuse scenarios such as direct potable reuse, more research is needed in the area of trace organic contaminants, with respect to their potential public health effects, monitoring, and control.
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Abbreviations
- AOP:
-
Advanced oxidation process
- DBP:
-
Disinfection byproduct
- DDT:
-
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
- DPR:
-
Direct potable reuse
- E. coli :
-
Escherichia coli
- H2O2 :
-
Hydrogen peroxide
- IPR:
-
Indirect potable reuse
- MBR:
-
Membrane bioreactor
- MF:
-
Microfiltration
- NDMA:
-
N-Nitrosodimethylamine
- NF:
-
Nanofiltration
- O3 :
-
Ozone
- PCB:
-
Polychlorinated biphenyl
- QMRA:
-
Quantitative microbial risk assessment
- QRRA:
-
Quantitative relative risk assessment
- RO:
-
Reverse osmosis
- UF:
-
Ultrafiltration
- U.S. EPA:
-
United States Environmental Protection Agency
- U.S. GAO:
-
United States General Accounting Office
- UV:
-
Ultraviolet
- WHO:
-
World Health Organization
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Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank his past and present colleagues, namely, Dr. Mohamed Gamal El-Din, Dr. Hongjing Fu, Dr. Ian D. Buchanan, Mr. Odell Pui, Dr. Yang Liu, Ms. Ruo Nan Sun (University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada), Ms. Lisa N. Gochenour (City of Omaha, Nebraska), Mr. Robert R. Murphy, Mr. Michael B. Nessl, Mr. Jacob D. Peterson (PACE, California), Ms. Yao Jin, and Ms. Ling Wang (University of California, Irvine-PACE), for their valuable contributions to the literature survey in the past 6 years. The editorial assistance of Ms. Kelly M. Huston and Mr. Carlos Gomez (PACE) is also gratefully acknowledged. The author would also like to thank Mr. Andrew T. Komor (PACE) for his support and encouragement.
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Ikehata, K. (2013). Hazardous Agents in Wastewater: Public Health Impacts and Treatment Options for Safe Disposal and Reuse. In: Sharma, S., Sanghi, R. (eds) Wastewater Reuse and Management. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4942-9_6
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