Determination of hydraulic and treatment characteristics of three waste stabilization ponds in Jamaica

by 1976- Gray, Monica Annmarie

The ability to reliably predict the fluid flow through a pond and relate these hydraulic characteristics to pond treatment performance is clearly very a valuable tool to the design engineer and treatment system operation manager. Therefore, once the retention time, removal efficiency and dispersion coefficient are determined then the appropriate flow equation (Plug, Complete mixed or Dispersed Flow) can be used to predict the degree of treatment of incoming pollutants. Dye tracing, using Rhodamine WT and Fluorescein to determine retention time and dispersion coefficient was attempted. Due to dye quenching, the dye tracing had to be abandoned and two analytic methods were used instead to determine the hydraulic characteristics. It was found that up to 80% of the BOD was removed with a retention time of approximately 4.9 days in the first of the three facultative ponds, with an average of 33% reduction in the other two ponds (retention time of about 2 days).