WASTEWATER TREATMENT: KEEPING THE DRINKING WATER CLEAN & AND INCREASING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN AMERICA
John R. Palisano, Ph. D.
INTRODUCTION
This website has been constructed to help Sewanee students develop a multidisciplinary approach to a dilemma that all countries with rapidly growing populations face -- how to purify and maintain the purity of the nations' drinking water. The series of lectures posted at this website will introduce the reader to the traditional wastewater treatment plant and then discuss how the lagoon system that is used in Sewanee at the Sewanee Utility District (SUD) wastewater treatment plant differs from the traditional approach. We will use the discussion of the Sewanee treatment plant to discuss how Sewanee wastewater treatment plant, and other wastewater treatment plants, then use the water (effluent) that leaves the plant to increase agricultural production. In Sewanee, the effluent is sprayed over the forest to increase the growth of trees. One wastewater treatment plant in Alabama is using the effluent to spray alfalfa fields that are harvested and used as feed on catfish farms. Finally, we will examine the economics of the traditional and lagoon treatment plants because nothing comes without a cost associated with it. Therefore, we will examine the physical features of a location and cultural and political factors that must be assessed before a decision is made to build a wastewater treatment plant to determine the appropriate course of action when submitting an environmental impact statement.
At the end of the outline for each lecture posted at this website is a selected bibliography so that the reader can explore any topic in more depth. Each lecture outline also contains study questions and several projects to encourage further exploration of the major topics in each lecture.
Also, feel free to visit: http://www.sewanee.edu/biology/palisano/microbiology/index.html
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Chlorination building beside a lagoon |
Lagoon |
Carbon Cycle and Biogeochemical Cycles
Scott's Lecture on Properties of Soil
Gottfried's Lecture on Sustainability
Feel free to contact John Palisano with any questions you might have.
