COD Discharge Limits for Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants in China Based on Statistical Methods
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water Article COD Discharge Limits for Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants in China Based on Statistical Methods Yuhua Zhou 1,2,*, Ning Duan 1,2, Xuefang Wu 2 and Hao Fang 3 1 College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; [email protected] 2 Environmental Standards Institution, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China; [email protected] 3 Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, State Environmental Protection and Industrial Wastewater Pollution Control Engineering and Technology (Beijing) Center, Beijing 100037, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 18 May 2018; Accepted: 11 June 2018; Published: 13 June 2018 Abstract: Discharge standards are among the most important regulations to control pollutants discharged from industries and domestic uses. China has made great efforts to build up its discharge standard system and develop methods to derive limits. However, there is still a lack of systematic analysis of measured data and derivation of discharge limits based on statistical methods. The present study, taking chemical oxygen demand (COD) discharge limits of urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) as an example, reviews the history of discharge standards of WWTPs in China and analyzes the statistical distributions of COD concentrations from 1753 WWTPs. Based on the lognormal distribution, three factors—geographic location, treatment process, and ratio of treated wastewater from industries—were found to be significantly correlated with logarithmic COD concentrations via a regression model and long-term averages of WWTPs were derived. Daily maximum variability factors for WWTPs based on the 99th percentile of the distribution of daily measurements and the discharge limits for WWTPs were also derived by multiplying long-term averages by variability factors. This study develops, for the first time in China, discharge limits based on statistical methods. The results may inform special discharge limit settings for different types of WWTPs. Keywords: COD; discharge standards; limits; statistical methods; urban wastewater treatment plants 1. Introduction As a form of legal enforcement, discharge standards have been designed to regulate end-of-pipe wastewater dischargers in China, as in most other countries. The national standard, “Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard (GB 8978-1996)” [1], first established separate discharge limits for urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). With development of environmental standard systems in the country, the national discharge standard of WWTPs (GB 18918-2002) [2] was established in 2002, which has played an important role in controlling water pollutants discharged from WWTPs. In 2006, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) of China released a modified announcement for GB 18918-2002 to strengthen protection of the water quality of lakes and reservoirs. Standard GB 18918-2002, however, had some limitations. The setting of this standard was mainly based on treatment technology and without considering the impact of geographic location, WWTP size, or the ratio of treated wastewater from industries [3]. Moreover, because of the limited data available at the time, there was also a shortage of measured data to evaluate the rationality of discharge limits. The application of statistical concepts to the establishment of wastewater discharge standards has Water 2018, 10, 777; doi:10.3390/w10060777 www.mdpi.com/journal/water Water 2018, 10, 777 2 of 10 been the subject of several articles [4–13]. From the 1980s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed a systematic method to derive technically based discharge limits using statistical analysis of discharge data and comprehensive evaluations of factors such as location and wastewater characteristics that might influence discharge concentration levels [14,15]. Both European Union (EU) directives concerning urban wastewater treatment [16] and limits on domestic and municipal wastewater in Germany [17] set different discharge limits for WWTPs on different scales, demonstrating that EU countries pay substantial attention to the influence to discharge concentrations caused by WWTP size. Furthermore, studies conducted by the EU have focused on the variations and statistical distributions of discharge concentrations, and the results have been considered in the development of discharge regulations [18,19]. Researchers in Korea have used statistical methods to improve the effluent standard in that country [20]. In recent years, China has made great efforts to collect discharge data and these data, especially from WWTPs, have been used to reveal statistical distributions for conventional pollutant discharge concentrations and evaluate the rationality of discharge standards [21,22]. Some researchers have assessed the effluent quality of WWTPs based on percentiles of the standard compliance method [23]. However, these studies mainly concerned a single city or river basin in China and therefore did not give an overall perspective of WWTPs discharge situations. Some studies have mentioned that industrial streams can influence wastewater influent quality [24], but these studies did not discuss the exact correlation between factors and discharge concentrations using statistical measures. Furthermore, there has been a lack of systematic method for deriving discharge limits based on statistical approaches in China. In the present study, chemical oxygen demand (COD) was selected as the target pollutant, and the primary objective was to derive COD discharge limits of WWTPs using a statistical method. We also address factors that may affect COD discharge concentrations from different WWTPs. The result of this study may provide suggestions for COD discharge standard revisions in China. 2. Basic Information of WWTPs in China According to the “Announcement of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants list in 2014” (the 35th announcement of the MEP, China, 2015), there were 4436 WWTPs in service, with a treatment capacity of 171 million m3/d and 135 million m3/d of treated wastewater. According to data in the announcement, the proportion of large-scale WWTPs (treatment capacity ≥ 0.1 million m3/d) in China was ~9.7%, while mid-scale (10 thousand m3/d ≤ treatment capacity < 0.1 million m3/d) and small-scale WWTPs (treatment capacity < 10 thousand m3/d) made up about 67.3% and 23.0%, respectively. The data showed WWTPs in China mainly use six treatment techniques: oxidation ditch, anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A/A/O), sequencing batch reactor (SBR), anoxic-oxic (A/O), activated sludge, and biological membrane (Figure1). These six techniques were used in almost 89.9% of WWTPs, and the ratio of treated wastewater was ~91%. WWTPs were allowed to receive wastewater from industries, and ~40% were receiving and treating industrial wastewater to varying extents. Some WWTPs in industrial zones even treated wastewater entirely from industries, which led to difficulties in meeting discharge standards. Water 2018, 10, 777 3 of 10 Water 2018, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 3 of 10 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 Number Number of WWTPs 200 0 Oxidation A/A/O SBR A/O Traditional Biological Others ditch activated membrane sludge Figure 1. Treatment techniques used by urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in China. Figure 1. Treatment techniques used by urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in China. 3.3. History History of of Discharge Discharge St Standardsandards of of WWTPs WWTPs in in China China “Integrated“Integrated Wastewater Wastewater Discharge Discharge Standard Standard (GB (GB 8978-1988)” 8978-1988)” [25] [25] was was the the first first standard standard to to set set dischargedischarge limits limits for for WWTPs WWTPs independently. independently. It It was was amended amended in in 1996 1996 to to “Integrated “Integrated Wastewater Wastewater DischargeDischarge Standard Standard (GB (GB 8978-1996)” 8978-1996)” [1]. [1]. After After that, that, China China has has made made requests requests for for stricter stricter control control of of wastewaterwastewater discharge discharge from from WWTPs WWTPs three three times. times. In In 2002, 2002, the the “Discharge “Discharge Standard Standard of of Pollutants Pollutants for for MunicipalMunicipal WastewaterWastewater Treatment Treatment Plant” Plant” (GB (GB 18918-2002) 18918-2002) [2] was [2] issued, was whichissued, focused which on focused controlling on controllingwastewater wastewater from WWTPs from and WWTPs was much and stricter was much than GBstricter 8978-1996. than GB Then, 8978-1996. the amended Then, GBthe 18918-2002 amended GBstipulated 18918-2002 that WWTPsstipulated discharging that WWTPs wastewater discharging to key wastewater rivers, lakes, to andkey reservoirsrivers, lakes, must and satisfy reservoirs Grade must1-A standards satisfy Grade of GB 1-A 18918-2002. standards The of thirdGB 18918-2002. issuance of “WaterThe third Pollution issuance Prevention of “Water and Pollution Control PreventionPlan for Key and River Control Basins Plan in Chinafor Key (2011–2015)” River Basins requested in China (2011–2015)” that all WWTPs requested in key riverthat all basin WWTPs areas inimplement key river Grade basin 1-Bareas standards implement of GB Grade 18918-2002 1-B standards (other than of theGB Grade18918-2002 2 standards). (other than Limits the for Grade certain 2 standards).parameters inLimits the discharge for certain standards parameters of WWTPs in the in discharge China are standards