Increased Transparency and Resource Prioritization for the Management of Pollutants From Wastewater Treatment Plants: A National Perspective From Australia

Abstract

With increasing human populations in coastal regions, there is growing concern over the quality of wastewater treatment plant (WTP) discharge and its impacts on coastal biodiversity, recreational amenities, and human health. In Australia, the current system of WTP monitoring and reporting varies across states and jurisdictions leading to a lack of data transparency and accountability, leading to a reduced ability to comprehensively assess regional and national scale biodiversity impacts and health risks. The National Outfall Database (NOD) was developed to provide a centralized spatial data management system for sharing and communicating comprehensive, national-scale WTP pollutant data. This research describes the structure of the NOD and through self-organizing maps and principal component analysis, provides a comprehensive, national-scale analysis of WTP effluent. Such a broad understanding of the constituents and level of pollutants in coastal WTP effluent within a public database provides for improved transparency and accountability and an opportunity to evaluate health risks and develop national water quality standards.

A Comprehensive Review of Machine Learning for Water Quality Prediction over the Past Five Years

“…A significant volume of wastewater generated by local residents is often discharged into the sea after undergoing rudimentary water treatment [5][6][7]. The discharge of sewage into the receiving water body will significantly increase turbidity and organic and inorganic substances, thereby changing the living environment of marine organisms [8]. Discrepancies between sewage treatment standards and marine water quality standards, particularly concerning specific key pollution values in certain countries, have led to the degradation of seawater quality due to the discharge of untreated sewage [9].…”

“…Numerical models, which derive results from rules and data [25], have been a frequently employed method for predicting changes in water quality [8,[26][27][28] and hydro-dynamic movement [29], with a variety of models available. Despite their capability to generate accurate simulations, their usage is significantly constrained by limitations.…”

Nematode Community Structures in the Presence of Wastewater Treatment Plant Discharge

“…In U.S. coastal waters, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution represent major threats to the ecological functioning of these systems (Howarth et al 2000; National Research Council 2000; United States Environmental Protection Agency 2015) and point sources like wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) contribute most inputs (Oelsner and Stets 2019) in coastal areas. WWTPs can also alter coastal ecosystem dynamics by introducing other pollutants, including microplastics (Ridall and Ingels 2022), bacterial contaminants (Numberger et al 2019), and oil and grease (Rohmana et al 2020). Nutrient loading and pollution deposition facilitated by WWTPs can provide conditions suitable for increased metabolic functions and higher fauna biomass, against a background of overall degradation and loss of diversity (Gücker et al 2006).…”