Operation and maintenance costs have been compiled for 20 wastewater t
reatment plants in the range of 7 000 to 650 000 population equivalent
s. Great effort has been made to exclude the effects of local conditio
ns on the costs. Data on energy and chemical consumption and manpower
are given as well as the total operating costs and the distribution of
manpower, energy, chemical and other costs. The results show that cos
ts for manpower and electricity as well as total costs on a per capita
basis decrease with increasing plant size. The variation between indi
vidual plants is, however, large even when differences in local condit
ions are accounted for.