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The objective of this study was to evaluate aerobic waste treatment plants as breeding sites for nematodes and to locate the unit processes and operations favorable for such breeding. The Urbana‐ Champaign (Illinois) Sanitary District waste treatment plant was chosen for this study. This plant uses the two processes, trickling‐filter and activated‐ sludge units, to treat the same domestic waste. This arrangement made possible a comparative evaluation of these two processes as nematode breeding sites. Furthermore, previous studies of the origin of the nematode population found in the Boneyard‐Saline Branch Drainage System were of assistance in estimating the relative contribution of nematodes discharged by the treatment plant. The nematode population at various locations within the treatment plant was monitored weekly from September 1962 to mid‐ September 1963.

This paper consists of: an evaluation of methods used in sampling, collecting, and counting nematodes from water; a study of the proportional contribution of seepage, runoff, and waste treatment plants to the total nematode concentration in streams; and, an investigation of the persistence of nematodes in streams. Initially, three separate studies were conducted to evaluate the contribution of nematodes from waste treatment plants and from surface and subsurface drainage. A comprehensive study was then made of the Boneyard‐Saline Branch drainage system in central Illinois to investigate the relative contribution of nematodes of the sources mentioned and the persistence of nematodes in streams.

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