ABSTRACT
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates the municipal solid waste generation rate in the United States to be 2.0 kg per person per day for 1990. The primary sources of municipal wastewater are residential units and retail and commercial business establishments. Other sources may include institutional and recreational facilities. In developed countries, residential, commercial, and industrial wastewater is collected and treated prior to returning the effluent to a river or other surface water body. The material removed during treatment is a sludge, a solid material which typically contains a high amount of moisture. A major need in wastewater management, then, is for a test to easily determine the organic content of a waste and to do so in a manner that provides a useful measure of the efficiency of a given treatment process. Several methods of measuring organic content are in common use. These include biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, and total organic carbon.
