Fundamentals of Wastewater Engineering Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamentals of wastewater engineering, its history, classification, and chemical/physical characteristics based on the provided lecture notes.

Wastewater Engineering

The branch of environmental engineering in which the basic principles of science and engineering are applied to the problems of water pollution control, and issues associated with the treatment and reuse of wastewater.

Sewage

A term often used to refer to wastewater, but more properly applied to domestic (household) wastewater produced by a community.

Sewage Sludge

A semi-solid waste or slurry by-product of sewage treatment.

Pollution

The introduction of a substance to the environment at levels leading to lost beneficial use of a resource or degradation of the health of humans, wildlife, or ecosystems.

Load

The mass flux of a pollutant, expressed as mass per unit time.

Point sources

Identifiable sources of pollution occurring when harmful substances are emitted directly into a body of water from a pipeline or sewer.

CAFO (Concentrated/Confined Animal Feeding Operation)

Facilities where animals are fed and confined for $45$ days or more in any $12$-consecutive-month period, and where crops or vegetation are not grown or sustained in the facility.

Animal Unit

A measurement equal to $450\,kg$ of live animal mass.

Non-Point source pollution

Diffuse source of pollution occurring as water moves across the land or through the ground and picks up natural and human-made pollutants, characterized by multiple discharge points.

Knossos

The capital city of the Minoan Culture on the island of Crete, documented as the first place in Europe where functional flush toilets were used.

Xylospongium

Also known as a tersorium or sponge on a stick, a wooden stick with a sea sponge used by ancient Romans for hygiene after defecating.

Cloaca Maxima

The Greatest Sewer; an ancient Roman vaulted underground network of sewers.

Effluvia

The unpleasant odor of the sewers.

Night soil

A euphemism for human feces collected at night from cesspools and privies, sometimes used as fertilizer.

Jean-Louis Mouras

The individual credited with the origin of the first septic tank in France.

Sir Edward Frankland

A member of the first Royal Commission on River Pollution who developed trickling filter sand technology in $1868$.

Edward Ardern and William Lockett

The developers of Activated Sludge in England on May $3$, $1914$.

NPDES

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System; per Section $402$ of the USA Clean Water Act, it issues permits based on technology and water quality.

DAO 34 (1990)

DENR Administrative Order for Revised Water Usage and Classification in the Philippines.

DAO 35 (1990)

Revised Effluent Regulations of $1990$ applying to industrial and commercial wastewater/effluents.

Class AA

Public Water Supply Class I; waters from uninhabited or protected watersheds requiring only disinfection to meet the latest PNSDW.

Class SA

Marine protected waters designated as national/local marine parks, reserves, or sanctuaries, or Fishery Water Class I suitable for shellfish harvesting.

Influent

Raw wastewater coming into a treatment plant.

Industrial wastewater

Wastewater in which industrial wastes predominate, such as those from brewing or dyeing processes.

Gray water

Consumed water from the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry.

Black water

Water from flush toilets containing feces and urine.

Yellow water

Urine separated from toilets and urinals.

Brown water

Black water without yellow water.

Total Solids (TS)

All the matter that remains as residue upon evaporation at $103$ to $105\,^{\circ}C$.

Fixed solids

The inorganic fraction or residue left in a vessel after a sample is ignited at $550\,^{\circ}C$, serving as a rough measure of mineral content.

Volatile solids

The weight lost after a sample is ignited at $550\,^{\circ}C$, used as a rough approximation of the amount of organic matter.

Total Suspended Solids (TSS)

Solids in water that can be trapped or retained in a standard glass-fiber filter.

Settleable Solids

Suspended solids that will settle to the bottom of an Imhoff cone in one hour.

Colloidal Solids

Particulate matter with a diameter range from $1\,millimicron$ to $1\,micron$ that do not settle readily.

Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)

Solids in water that can pass through a standard glass-fiber filter with a pore size of $0.45\,\mu m$.

Hydrogen Sulfide ($H_2S$)

The gas responsible for the rotten egg odor of stale or septic wastewater, produced by anaerobic microorganisms reducing sulfates.

Skatole

A chemical compound in wastewater characterized by the odor of fecal matter.

Apparent Color

Color in wastewater due to the presence of suspended solids.

True Color

Color in wastewater due to dissolved solids that remain after suspended solids are removed.

Standard Color Unit

The color produced by $1\,mg/L$ of Platinum (Pt) plus $12\,mg/L$ of Cobalt.

pH

The negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration, formulated as $\text{pH} = -\log[H^+]$.

MBAS

Methylene blue active substance; a measure used to determine the concentration of surfactants by measuring color change.

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)

The amount of oxygen required by biochemical processes to completely aerobically decompose organic matter.

Ultimate BOD

The amount of oxygen required to decompose all of the organic material after infinite time.

Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)

The amount of dissolved oxygen required to oxidize and stabilize both organic and inorganic content using a strong oxidizing agent like Potassium dichromate.

Biodegradability Index

The ratio of $\text{BOD}_5 / \text{COD}$, which varies from $0.4$ to $0.8$ for domestic wastewaters.

ThOD

Theoretical Oxygen Demand; calculated based on the stoichiometric arrangement of organic matter in wastewater.

TKN

Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen; a measure of the sum of organic nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen ($NH_3$ and $NH_4^+$).

Trophy

The rate at which organic matter is supplied to lakes, both from the watershed and through internal production.

Autotrophic bacteria

Bacteria that use inorganic $\text{CO}_2$ as their carbon source.

Heterotrophic bacteria

Bacteria that use organic matter as their carbon source.

Rotifers

Aerobic, heterotrophic, multicellular animals whose presence in effluent indicates a highly stabilized biological process.