The presence of emerging contaminants in municipal wastewaters, particularly endocrine-disrupting compounds such as oestrogenic substances, has been the focus of much public concern and scientific attention in recent years. Due to the scientific uncertainty still surrounding their effects, the Precautionary Principle could be invoked for the interim management of potential risks. Therefore, pre...

Soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) pose a significant public health problem, infecting approximately 2 billion people globally. Despite relatively low prevalence in developed countries, the removal of STHs from wastewater remains crucial to allow the safe use of biosolids or recycled water for agriculture. Wastewater helminth egg count data can contribute to an assessment of the need for, or suc...

Until recently, few water utilities or researchers were aware of possible virus presence in deep aquifers and wells. During 2008 and 2009 we collected a time series of virus samples from six deep municipal water-supply wells. The wells range in depth from approximately 220 to 300 m and draw water from a sandstone aquifer. Three of these wells draw water from beneath a regional aquitard, and thr...

More stringent controls on the quality of wastewater discharges have given rise to increasing volumes of sewage sludge for disposal, principally to land, using either land-spreading or sludge-to-landfill operations. Current sludge-to-landfill methods generally involve mixing the concentrated sludge with other solid waste in municipal landfills. However, stricter waste disposal legislation and h...

Thousands of high production volume (HPV) chemicals are used in the US at rates exceeding 450,000 kg (1 million pounds) per year, yet little is known about their fates during wastewater treatment and upon release into the environment. We utilized a recently introduced empirical model to predict the fraction of the mass loading (in raw sewage) that is expected to persist in digested sludge follo...

Municipal sewage is a source of various lipids where the lipids can be extracted and converted to biodiesel by transesterification reaction. The present study reveals the properties of extracted Lipids like, Viscosity mmS, Density, kg/m3, Acid value mg KOH/g, Iodine value g I2/100 g, Value of saponification(mg KOH/g), Free fatty acid (%),Capric acid (%),Lauric acid (%),Myristic acids (%),Steari...

When the sewage sludge containing the persistent, lipophilic, metabolite 4-nonylphenol (4-NP) has been disposed of in the environment it's toxic nature can lead to serious health risks to human beings and can also affect plants and aquatic organisms. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a new and powerful technique for extracting the organic contaminants from the solid phase. The present stu...

Several studies have noted that treated and untreated wastewaters are primary contributors of a variety of pathogenic microorganisms to the aquatic ecosystem. Conventional wastewater treatment may not be sufficient to achieve microbiologically safe effluent to be discharged into natural waters or reused, thus requiring wastewater effluents to be disinfected. In recent years, peracetic acid (PAA...

The usability of the solid phase extraction method with Tenax-TA adsorbent for the forecasting of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon losses during sewage sludges composting has been evaluated in the present study. Four municipal sewage sludges were composted for 76 days. The PAH content in the sludges ranged from 3674 to 11 236 microg kg(-1). After composting, a significant reduction of PAH conten...

The biomass fraction of processed municipal and industrial wastes added to soil can 10 maintain, and in some case improve, the soil’s organic fertility. One of the main constraints in the 11 agricultural use of the sewage sludge is its content of heavy metals. In the long term, soil 12 administration of sewage sludge in agriculture could result in a risk of environmental impact. The 13 aim of t...