ORGANISKA FÖRORENINGAR I KOMMUNALT AVLOPPSVATTEN OCH DERAS BET/DELSE FÖR VATTENKVALITETEN / Organic Pollutants in Municipal Wastewater and their Significance for the Wastewater Quality
A large numbder of samples of the influent, efHuent and the sludge at the Rya WWTP in Göteborg was
analyzed for organic Priority Pollutants berween 1984 and 1994. Many Priority Pollutants are not used in Göteborg or used in very small quandties and therefore have not been detected in any of the samples or detected sporadically. Industrial effluent control program in Göteborg has been successful to reduce the discharge to the sewer of p-nonylphenol ethoxylates and petroleum-based solvents from larger industries. The major part of detected pollutants originates from diffuse sources with increasing dominance of domestic sewage. Organic Priority Pollutants have no observable impact on the water treatment process and the pollutants occuring in the influent are removed during the treatment. Organic Priority Pollutants in municipal wastewaters are not problematic for the wastewater quality. Instead of chasing Priority Pollutants the efforts to improve the wastewarer quality should be concentrated on more relevant major constituents, especially surfactants.