Pollution based real time control of wastewater systems.

Wastewater systems are traditionally built as static systems to handle a design load. The real load varies, though, and hardly ever equals the design load. This implies that wastewater systems hardly ever operate in an optimum way, especially during wet weather. Real time control (RTC) of regulators can improve the operation by better fit of the system to the actual state and load. RTC based on pollutant concentrations together with hydraulic conditions (pollution based real time control, PBRTC) is investigated in this paper to assess the potential pollutant load reduction on receiving waters at wet weather without expansion of transport or storage capacity. Both CSOs and WWTP effluents contribute to the pollutant discharges to receiving waters and both are considered. Three cases are studied to assess the potential benefit of PBRTC. Giving priority to the most polluted wastewater for treatment and storage in branched interceptor systems can reduce CSO discharge loads by more than 20%. Biological WWTPs and especially activated sludge plants are more complex and less stable than chemical precipitation plants during and after high pollutant and hydraulic load. Biological plants can hence profit more from PBRTC than chemical precipitation plants. Receiving waters that are sensitive to acute effects caused by intermittent discharges can benefit more from PBRTC than receiving waters with problems connected to long-term accumulation of pollution.