The Discovery of Biological

Wastewater Treatment
 Before 1890, chemical precipitation with land farming was the standard
method of wastewater treatment in England. The most popular option was to
first allow the waste to go anaerobic in what we today call septic tanks. Such
putrefaction was though to be a purely chemical process because the physical
nature of the waste obviously changed. The effluent from the specific tank
was then chemically precipitated, and the sludge was applied to farmland or
transported by special sludge ships to the ocean. The partially treated effluent
was discharged o streams where it created severe odor problems.
At the time London's services were provided by the London Metropolitan Board of
Works, which among its other responsibilities, was charged with cleaning up the
river Thames. The chief engineer for this organization was Joseph Bazalgette, who
approached the Thames water quality problem from what was atko the time a
perfectly rational engineering perspectives. If theI problem was baf odorto in
London, why not build long interceptor sewers along both banks of the Thames
River and fischarge the waste water far downstream. Although expebsive
this.solution was adopted and thekisses city spent large sumsof money to export
thethe wastewater to Barking Creek on rhe North Bank anf Crossness Point on the
south bank.
In an 1888 address to the royal society of arts, Dupre suggested that "our trearment
should be such as to avoid the killing of this organisms or even humpering them in their
actions, vut rather to do everything to favor them in their beneficial works."
But Dibdin and Dupre were not totally succesful in convincing the board but their ideas
was right. Many scientists, is still believeing in the evils of the microbial world, argued
that odorthe control could be achieve only by kiing the micro organismsf. These
scscientist mmanaged in 1887, to wrest conteol of the treatment works from Divdin and
initiated a summer deodorization control suggested by a acollege professor that involed
anti septic treTment with sulfuric acid and chloeide of lime. This process failed ;Dibdin
was vindicated , and biologicawastewater treatment became the standard for all large
municipal sewage facilities.
Task : Cleaning up the River Thames in London

Problem : Bad odor caused by the sewage along the banks

of Thames.
OBJECTIVES
1. To stabilize the organic content
2. To remove nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus

Solution: They have to discrage continuously the waste water

far downstream.
 CONCLUSION

Biological treatment is an important and integral part of any

wastewater treatment plant that treats wastewater from either
municipality or industry having soluble organic impurities or a mix of
the two types of wastewater sources. The obvious economic advantage,
both in terms of capital investment and operating costs, of biological
treatment over other treatment processes like chemical oxidation;
thermal oxidation etc. has cemented its place in any integrated
wastewater treatment plant.