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Photograph of a failed septic system on bedrock on a hill (C)2006 Daniel FriedmanResidential Sewage Treatment Processes

This article describes Five Types of Residential Septic Wastewater Treatment Processed

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Five Types of Wastewater Treatment Processes

  1. Aerobic wastewater treatment: use microbes (bacteria, fungi which require oxygen) to treat septic effluent. There are four aerobic processes available:
    1. Activated sludge - in which "activated" or "pepped up" bacteria treat the wastewater
    2. Trickling filters - effluent is trickled (by gravity) over a filter media containing the bacteria
    3. Treatment lagoons - not found in a single-family residential system
    4. Soil beds - such as a conventional soil absorption or "leach field" or perhaps a sand bed filter system
  2. Anoxic wastewater treatment: these processes work where oxygen is not available and remove nitrogen (denitrification using heterotrophic bacteria) and phosphorous from wastewater (also using bacteria).
  3. Anaerobic wastewater treatment used to treat septic sludge by heterotrophic bacterial processes requiring little or no oxygen.
  4. Combined wastewater treatment processes which make use of more than one of the methods listed
  5. Pond wastewater treatment processes by using natural-forming bacteria or algae in (usually) site-built ponds, possibly supplemented by an air pump or spray system to add oxygen to the treatment water and treatment process. Sludge settled to the bottom of a pond forms an anaerobic treatment zone and waste in the upper level of the pond is treated aerobically (facultative ponds - [Burks/Minnis].

This article series is a supplement to the introduction (SEPTIC SYSTEM BASICS) to our online book SEPTIC INSPECTION & TEST GUIDE


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