Centre for Aquatic Pollution Identification and Management CAPIM, Building 147 (BioSciences 4), Faculty of Science, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
Centre for Aquatic Pollution Identification and Management CAPIM, Building 147 (BioSciences 4), Faculty of Science, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
Sci Total Environ. 2017 Feb 15;580:1327-1339. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.12.096. Epub 2016 Dec 22.
Advances in wastewater treatment have greatly improved the quality of municipal wastewater effluents in many parts of the world, but despite this, treated wastewaters can still pose a risk to the environment. Licensing plays a crucial role in the regulation of municipal wastewater effluents by setting standards or limits designed to protect the economic, environmental and societal values of waterbodies. Traditionally these standards have focused on physical and chemical water quality parameters within the discharge itself, however these approaches do not adequately account for emerging contaminants, potential effects of chemical mixtures, or variations in the sensitivity and resilience of receiving environments. In this review we focus on a number of industrialised countries and their approach to licensing. We consider how we can ensure licensing is effective, particularly when considering the rapid changes in our understanding of the impacts of discharges, the technical advances in our ability to detect chemicals at low concentrations and the progress in wastewater treatment technology. In order to meet the challenges required to protect the values of our waterways, licensing of effluents will need to ensure that there is no disconnect between the core values to be protected and the monitoring system designed to scrutinise performance of the WWTP. In many cases this may mean an expansion in the monitoring approaches used for both the effluent itself and the receiving waterbody.
废水处理技术的进步极大地改善了世界许多地区的城市污水出水水质，但尽管如此，经处理的废水仍可能对环境构成威胁。许可在管理城市污水排放方面发挥着至关重要的作用，它设定了旨在保护水体的经济、环境和社会价值的标准或限制。传统上，这些标准主要集中在排放物本身的物理和化学水质参数上，但这些方法不能充分考虑到新兴污染物、化学混合物的潜在影响，或受纳环境的敏感性和恢复能力的变化。在这篇综述中，我们重点关注一些工业化国家及其许可方式。我们考虑如何确保许可有效，特别是当考虑到我们对排放物影响的理解迅速变化、我们在低浓度下检测化学品的技术进步以及废水处理技术的进展时。为了应对保护水道价值所需的挑战，废水排放许可制度需要确保受保护的核心价值与旨在审查污水处理厂绩效的监测系统之间没有脱节。在许多情况下，这可能意味着需要扩大对废水本身和受纳水体的监测方法。
