Title: Implications of draft EC Directive concerning municipal waste water treatment : Memorandum submitted by the NRA to House of Lords Select Committee on the European Communities
Author: National Rivers Authority
Document Type: Monograph
Abstract:
This Directive has a number of primary objectives: to increase the collection of municipal waste water through sewers; to increase the fraction of such waters which receive treatment; to raise the level of treatment for wastes entering waters which require higher levels of protection; to phase out the disposal of sewage sludge to sea; to make the information relating to all such discharges available to the public; and to encourage Member States to assist each other in meeting such objectives. A central part of the Directive would be the imposition of fixed effluent quality standards. Municipal waste water contains water from industry and urban run-off, in addition to waste of domestic origin. Its principal constituents are therefore organic material, ammoniacal nitrogen, other forms of nitrogen, phosphorus, fats, various metals, trace quantities of many other chemicals, plus bacteria and viruses. The principal reason for 'treating' such water is to remove those materials which, upon entering the receiving water, would use up the oxygen such; that aquatic life would be 'suffocated. Many other constituents of the waste water are also removed coincidentally in the treatment process and, if necessary, specific chemical removal - or other forms of water treatment processes - can be incorporated into the overall procedures.
Publisher: National Rivers Authority
Publication Date: 1991
Publication Place: London
Subject Keywords: Directives (European Union); Sewage; Wastewater; Wastewater treatment
Geographic Keywords: England; Wales
Extent: 12
Permalink: http://www.environmentdata.org/archive/ealit:3185
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