Performance evaluation of small treatment systems in Turkey

In accordance with the development of tourism, sea pollution has become the major problem of the coastal tones. In order to realize sustainable touris tic activities in Turkey, it is very important to treat wastewater and pres erve the environmental quality. It is roughly estimated that there are arou nd 2000 small treatment plants in Turkey. However, it is necessary to const ruct 10,000 more wastewater treatment plants to solve the wastewater proble ms in small settlements. In this study, performances of small treatment sys tems were investigated. Two types of the treatment plants were of concern. The first one is a continuous system based on fixed bed activated sludge pr ocess, whereas the second system is based on batch activated sludge process . 96 treatment plants have been investigated in this study. The wastewater characteristic is determined as strong domestic wastewater. it has been obs erved that the effluent quality of the batch activated sludge and aerated b iofilter systems meet the discharge requirements of Water Pollution Control Regulation in Turkey. Furthermore, they would be easily adapted to meet th e stringent standards that are proposed for sensitive zones.