The Effects of Industrial Wastes on Nitrification Processes Found Within Wastewater Treatment Works

There is increasing pressure from the regulators to reduce the amount of ammonia discharged to the freshwater environment. A major source of this material is the wastewater treatment works (WWTWs). Current regulations permit certain works to discharge relatively high levels of ammonia, perfectly legally, before consent is breached. The regulators are reviewing consents on certain environmental discharges to more acceptable levels with, in some cases, 1 mg l-1 being the target concentration. Some works could fail consent if some form of treatment is not introduced to remove ammonia.