An evaluation of costs, rate, and environmental impacts of upgrading publically owned treatment works (POTWs) in the State of Utah to four levels of nutrient control allowed a variety of nutrient control policies to be assessed. Upgrade costs and rate impacts indicated that costs would be within a defined range for many POTWs, especially with design capacities greater than 40,000 m3/day (∼10 mgd). However, costs were significantly higher for some POTWs with lower design capacities, and nutrient upgrades to the most stringent levels would not be affordable for these communities, representing about 15 percent of the service population. The resulting equity issues can be addressed through hardship grants program and/or regulations based on a trading scheme. Analysis demonstrated that trading offers advantages, including cost efficiency and flexibility to accommodate further nutrient reductions and population growth, and greater ability to interface with urban and rural nonpoint nutrient control. Currently, the State of Utah is establishing technology‐based nutrient limits that can be affordably implemented at all POTWs in phases. Additionally, a multi‐faceted approach is being evaluated that will consider prioritized watershed‐scale strategies, point and nonpoint sources of pollution, ecological and socioeconomic implications, and stakeholder participation in nutrient reduction programs.
This project will deal with a number of aspects of WAS-onlyreduction technologies for both industrial and municipal wastewater treatment applications. The objectives of this project include the following:
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.