Anaerobic digestion has been the preferred method for reducing and stabilizing waste sludge from biological wastewater treatment for over a century; however, as sludge volumes and disposal costs increase, there has been a desire to develop various methods for reducing the volume of sludge to be treated, improving the performance of the digesters, and increasing the energy value of the sludge. To this end, there have been numerous pretreatment and side-stream systems studied and developed over the past several decades with the overall goal of reducing the volume of biosolids to be disposed of in landfills or by land application. These technologies can be broken into four large groups: mechanical, thermal, chemical and biological, although there is often overlap between groups. This research approached the evaluations of these technologies through several methods in the hopes of developing effective tools for predicting the performance of each technology. Batch digestion studies mimicking several of these treatment methods and extensive analytical work on samples from full-scale installations were conducted to determine the effectiveness of each technology. From these studies a simple batch digestion methodology was developed to analyze the effectiveness of the Cannibal solids reduction process on wastewater streams that have never been exposed to it. Batch digestion of sludges pretreated with ozone, mechanical shear and sonication provided insight into the effectiveness of each technology. Extensive analytical work on samples collected from full-scale installations of thermal hydrolysis, mechanical shear and the Cannibal process provided some insight into the workings of each process and potential leads as to how to further characterize and evaluate each process. / Master of Science

Biosolids, materials resulting from domestic sewage treatment, are surface applied to forest soils to increase nutrient availability. Retaining streamside management zones (SMZs) can limit nutrient pollution of streams. We delineated 15 m SMZs along three intermittent streams in an 18-year-old Pinus taeda L. plantation. We applied biosolids outside the SMZ on one side of each of the streams maintaining the other side of the stream as control. We collected water samples from the three treated and six reference streams as well as from the perennial stream both upstream and downstream from the intermittent streams for 12 months following treatment. Along transects perpendicular to the treated streams, we collected overland flow samples, soil solution samples at 60 cm and extracts from ion exchange membranes (IEMs) placed in the surface soil. We found elevated nitrate concentrations outside the SMZ in the treated side soil solution samples, in which concentrations remained below 1.5 mg L-1. Nutrient concentrations outside the SMZ in treated side IEM extracts increased following biosolids application, returning to near control levels after one year. Nutrient concentrations in IEM extracts were not elevated adjacent to the streams. We observed elevated phosphorus concentrations adjacent to the stream in overland flow during one period on the treated side of the stream. Stream nutrient concentrations showed few differences downstream from the treatment with concentrations below 1.5 mg L-1. Our results indicate that a 15 m SMZ protected streams from nutrient pollution for the first year following biosolids application to adjacent forestlands. / Master of Science

Trimethylamine, (CH3)3N, (TMA), odors are often associated with limed and polymer conditioned sludges. This odor has a fishy smell and can be a nuisance to the community surrounding a wastewater treatment plant or land application site. Several factors are thought to determine the amount of TMA generated from limed biosolids. These are, the presence of cationic polymer, the polymer dose, the time between addition of polymer and lime stabilization, shear imparted on the sludge in the dewatering process and dewatered cake solids concentration. All of these were investigated in this study. The results showed that TMA could be generated from sludge that did not contain polymer but the concentrations were low compared to sludge conditioned with cationic polymer. As the polymer dose increased, the TMA increased. Shear also showed to play an important role for TMA production. In addition to higher shear increasing the polymer demand, shear in itself can increase TMA generation. However, the most important factor in generating TMA was the time between conditioning and liming. If this time was minimized, little TMA was produced, even at high polymer doses. Data also suggests that methanogens play an important role in the breakdown of TMA. / Master of Science

L’utilisation de matières résiduelles fertilisantes (MRF) dans les plantations de peupliers hybrides (PEH) au Québec pourrait en maximiser la productivité et le volume marchand. Elle présenterait aussi l’avantage de minimiser l’enfouissement ou l’incinération des MRF. Cependant, le dosage des MRF doit être calibré en fonction de la réponse optimale des arbres. L’étude a été réalisée dans une plantation de PEH en Estrie. Un dispositif expérimental comprenant deux blocs (répétitions) de cinq parcelles - un témoin et quatre traitements de combinaisons de biosolides papetiers et de boue de chaux - y a été mis en place à l’automne 2012 et au printemps 2013, soit trois ans avant l’échantillonnage (été 2015). Les traitements représentaient les doses suivantes : 140 et 15 t ha-1 (humides), 140 et 30 t ha-1, 240 et 15 t ha-1 et 240 et 30 t ha-1 de biosolides et de boue de chaux, respectivement. Les propriétés physico-chimiques du sol et la morphologie et la nutrition des PEH ont été évaluées. Nous avons observé un effet très significatif des traitements de MRF sur la croissance des PEH par rapport aux parcelles non traitées. La hauteur des arbres a augmenté de 1,6 à 2 fois, le diamètre de 2,5 à 4 fois, la surface foliaire de 3 à 8 fois et le poids foliaire de 2,7 à 9 fois dans les parcelles traitées comparativement aux arbres des parcelles non traitées. Toutefois, aucune différence significative n’a pu être constatée entre les différents amendements. Les analyses de nutrition foliaire ont, quant à elles, démontré que la fertilisation avec les MRF permettait de pallier la faible disponibilité des nutriments dans le sol. Ainsi, avec l’ajout de MRF, les macronutriments N, P, K et Ca dans les feuilles se situaient à l’intérieur des plages de concentrations optimales, alors que sans MRF, les feuilles montraient des concentrations sous ces seuils. Malgré les faibles différences observées entre les quatre amendements, le traitement combinant 240 t ha-1 de biosolides et 15 t ha-1 de chaux est celui qui se rapprochait le plus d’une nutrition optimale pour le PEH. Les biosolides papetiers en combinaison avec la boue de chaux donnent des résultats très encourageants en ce qui a trait à la nutrition foliaire et le rendement des plantations du PEH lors des premières années d’établissement. / The use of fertilizing residual materials (FRM) in hybrid poplar (HP) plantations in Quebec could maximize yields and merchantable volumes. It would also have the advantage of minimizing the burial (landfill) or incineration of FRM. However, applications rates of FRM must be calibrated for an optimal response of the trees. The study was conducted in a PEH plantation in the Eastern Townships. An experimental design comprising two blocks (repetitions) of five plots - one control and four combinations of papermill biosolids and lime sludge - was established in fall 2012/spring 2013 and sampling was conducted three years later (summer 2015). The treatments represented the following application rates: 140 and 15 t ha-1 (wet), 140 and 30 t ha-1, 240 and 15 t ha-1 and 240 and 30 t ha-1 of biosolids and lime, respectively. Soil properties as well as morphology and nutrition of HP were evaluated. We observed a highly significant treatment effect on HP growth compared to untreated plots. The height of HP trees in the treated plots increased by 1.6 to 2 times, diameter by 2.5 to 4 times, leaf area by 3 to 8 times and the foliar weight by 2.7 to 9 times compared to the trees in the untreated plots. However, there was no significant difference among the various treatments. Foliar nutrition analyses showed that fertilization with FRM was sufficient to compensate for the low availability of nutrients in the soil. Thus, with FRM application, the macronutrients N, P, K and Ca in the leaves were within the optimal concentration ranges, whereas without FRM, the leaves showed concentrations below these thresholds. Despite the small differences observed among the four amendments, the treatment combining 240 t ha-1 of biosolids and 15 t ha-1 of lime was the one the closest to the optimal nutrition for HP. Papermill biosolids in combination with lime sludge provide very encouraging results in regard to foliar nutrition and yields of HP plantations.

<div>Biosolids-based fertilizers are sold to the public to provide beneficial nutrients and organic matter for plant production. They are commonly applied to community gardens, municipal lands, reclamation projects, and golf courses. These fertilizers, however, may also contain a variety of trace organic contaminants, which can be persistent in the environment. Our work sought to quantify the persistence of biosolids contaminants in community garden soils. The commercial biosolids-based fertilizer, OCEANGRO®, was amended to two community garden soils to determine the first-order half-lives of four model contaminants: carbamazepine, miconazole, triclocarban, and triclosan. The criteria for their selection included biosolids occurrence, ecotoxicity, antimicrobial function, and knowledge gaps. Aerobic biosolids-amended soil microcosms were incubated at 22 ± 1 °C and approximately 80% field capacity. Sacrificial sampling occurred seven times over 180 days through multi-step solvent extractions. Detection and quantification were done on a high-performance liquid chromatograph tandem triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer. Results indicated that biosolids contaminants persist in soils with some having modeled half-lives in the hundreds of days. Additional analyses of solvent-spiked contaminant degradation and porewater desorption were performed to provide greater insight into possible limitations on resident biosolids contaminant degradation and to form a better comparative basis to previous literature. Solvent-spiked contaminants degraded more quickly than those resident within biosolids, which indicate that data using the former may underestimate persistence in real-world environments. The porewater analysis allowed for the desorption coefficient to be calculated for all four model resident contaminants. Disparities in the trends of these desorption coefficients and solvent-spiked degradation rates showed that desorption from the biosolids matrix may have been a limiting factor to resident degradation for only some of our four model contaminants. Nonetheless, the demonstrated persistence of these contaminants necessitates long-term thinking in relation to biosolids application. More work is needed on the potential hazards associated with biosolids use in public lands regarding ecotoxicity and antimicrobial resistance.</div>

Poucos municípios brasileiros têm estações de tratamento de esgoto (ETEs), sendo que uma grande parte do esgoto ainda não é tratada, causando forte impacto ambiental devido ao seu despejo ?in natura? nos cursos de água. O processo de tratamento de esgoto gera grande quantidade de lodo cujo destino final deve ser bem planejado, pois acarreta além de conseqüências ambientais, conseqüências de caráter econômico, social e sanitário. Um destino ecologicamente desejável seria a utilização desse resíduo, depois de tratado (biossólido), em plantios florestais como fertilizante e condicionador de solo. Mas, ainda são poucos os conhecimentos disponíveis para que a sua utilização seja realizada em larga escala. Recentemente, o Conselho Nacional do Meio Ambiente (CONAMA), através de resolução específica estabeleceu critérios e procedimentos para o uso de lodo de esgoto em áreas agrícolas, visando benefícios à agricultura e evitando riscos à saúde pública e ao ambiente. Conseqüentemente, amplia-se agora a necessidade de estudos mais aprofundados sobre o assunto. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo aprofundar os conhecimentos sobre a influência da utilização de lodo de esgoto nas plantações florestais. Em abril de 2003, foi implantado um experimento na Estação Experimental de Ciências Florestais da ESALQ/USP em Itatinga com a finalidade de estudar o crescimento das árvores de Eucalyptus grandis tratadas com doses crescentes dos lodos úmido (torta) e seco (granulado) e, principalmente, a ciclagem de nutrientes no ecossistema, através de observações relacionadas com os processos de produção, acúmulo e decomposição da serapilheira nas parcelas experimentais dos diferentes tratamentos. Supõe-se que a aplicação dos lodos de esgoto úmido e seco nas linhas de plantio dos eucaliptos altere de maneira positiva a fertilidade do solo, incrementando significativamente o volume de madeira produzida pelos eucaliptos, servindo como fontes de nutrientes, portanto, o uso do lodo permitiria a substituição das adubações nitrogenada e fosfatada, usualmente aplicadas nos plantios florestais, e poderia suprir também a necessidade da aplicação de micronutrientes (exceto o boro). Também a aplicação dos lodos úmido e seco deve refletir de maneira positiva na ciclagem de nutrientes, alterando a quantidade e a velocidade da transferência dos diferentes elementos entre os compartimentos do sistema Árvores - Serapilheira - Solo. / Several Brazilian cities have sewer treatment stations, but a lot of cities do not treat the sewage yet, causing a strong environmental impact, mainly in water courses. The sewer treatment process generates a big amount of sewage sludge, so the final destination must be well studied, because it involves environmental, economic, social and sanitary consequences. A good destination of this residue would be its application, after treated (biosolids), in forest stands for fertilizing and conditioning of soil. Recently, CONAMA (National Advice of the Environment) established procedures and criteria for the use in agricultural areas of sewage sludge for benefits to agriculture and preventing risks to the health and the environment. Consequently, more scientific information will be necessary for sewage sludge application on a large scale. The aim of this study was to extend the knowledge about the influence of sewage sludge (humid and dry) on eucalypts plantations. So in April 2003, an experimental stand of Eucalyptus grandis was planted in the Experimental Station of Itatinga (ESALQ/USP). The purpose was to study the growth of the eucalypts, treated with increasing doses of humid and dry sewage sludge, and also the nutrients cycling in the forest plantation ecosystem through the production, accumulation and decomposition of the leaf-litter in the different treatments. It is expected that application of humid and dry sewage sludge in the rows of planting may modify positively soil fertility, wood volume produced by eucalypts, and nutrient cycling in the ecosystem.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals have prioritized improving access to sanitation, but unfortunately about a third of the global population is still without an improved sanitation source and one billion still practice open defecation. Lack of access to adequate and safe sanitation means the proliferation of dangerous pathogens in the environment, especially soil-transmitted helminths (STHs). In the Bocas del Toro Province of Panama (and similar locations in the world), composting latrines have been built in many of the indigenous communities in the area. They are a form of dry or ecological sanitation and are designed to produce an end product that can be used as a soil amendment for agricultural purposes. The issue is that many of these latrines are not working as designed and do not go through the composting process. Instead, they may act as incubators for harmful pathogens, such as Ascaris lumbricoides (roundworm). This research 1) provides an extensive literature review of the health situation of Panama, focusing on indigenous populations; soil-transmitted helminths and helminthiasis; Ascaris lumbricoides and its implications for wastewater reuse and land application of biosolids/sewage sludge; and inactivation of Ascaris in composting latrines; and 2) develops and proposes an experimental plan, with field-based methods, to assess the inactivation of Ascaris, by urea and solar heat (increased temperature), in composting latrines in Panama. Various experiments have been conducted in the laboratory using urea and increased temperature to inactive Ascaris; however few have been carried out in dry toilet technologies in the field. The contribution of this thesis is the field-based experimental design developed for inactivating Ascaris in composting latrines. The methods build upon previous research carried out both in the laboratory and in the field.

Presented is a study of persistent organic pollutants in Australian sewage sludge, focusing on environmental monitoring and a sewage sludge land application human health risk contaminated with these compounds. The chemicals of concern were: • Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and

Resumo: O conhecimento de atributos bioquímicos dos resíduos, associado à disponibilidade de metais pesados em virtude da utilização de lodo de esgoto em solos agricultáveis, tem por objetivo fornecer ferramentas para minimizar os riscos de poluições ambientais trazidos pela utilização do lodo de esgoto nos solos. Portanto, para avaliar o efeito do nível de contaminação de cádmio nas propriedades bioquímicas do lodo de esgoto e posterior disponibilidade do metal no solo, foram incubadas amostras de 500g de lodo com CdCl2, CdSO4, Cd(NO3)2 e Cd metálico em casa de vegetação. Posteriormente, lodo incubado e não incubado, na dose de 10 Mg ha-1, foram adicionados a amostras de Latossolo Vermelho distrófico e cultivado com sorgo granífero. Determinaram-se as atividades enzimáticas de amilases, arilsulfatases, desidrogenases e proteases nas amostras de lodo incubadas durante 58 dias. Após incubação e cultivo de sorgo granífero com lodo incubado e não incubado, avaliaram-se os teores de cádmio extraídos com Mehlich I e DTPA no lodo incubado e a disponibilidade do metal em amostras de terra, coletadas aos 60 e 120 dias de cultivo, com os extratores DTPA, HNO3 e HF. As fontes de cádmio adicionadas ao LE alteraram a atividade enzimática de amilases, arilsulfatases, desidrogenases e proteases. A produção de matéria seca e grãos pela cultura do sorgo granífero não foram influenciadas pelos tratamentos no lodo, assim como, pelas fontes acrescidas de cádmio. A extração de cádmio do solo foi influenciada pelo período de incubação. / Abstract: Knowing the biochemical attributes of residues, associated with the heavy metals availability due to the use of sewage sludge in cropped soils, aims to supply tools in order to minimize the risks of environmental pollution brought by the use of that residue as a fertilizer. However, in order to evaluate the effect of the contamination level by the addition of cadmium on the biochemical properties of the sewage sludge and the posterior metal availability in the soil, 500g of sludge were incubated with CdCl2, CdSO4, Cd(NO3) or metallic Cd in a green house. Incubated and no-incubated sewage sludge was then added to a Typic Haplorthox in the rate 10 mg/ha and sorghum was grown. Enzymatic activity of amylases, arylsulphatases, dehydrogenases and proteases in the sewage sludge samples incubated for 58 days were evaluated. Cadmium was evaluated in the sewage sludge incubated for 58 days using the extractors Mehlich I and DTPA and in soil samples obtained at the 60th and 120th days of sorghum cultivation using the extractors DTPA, HNO3 and HF. The results demonstrated that the time of incubation, as well as the cadmium sources, clearly influenced sewage sludge enzymatic activities by increasing and decreasing the activities. Cadmium sources did not alter significantly the amounts of metal extracted from incubated sewage sludge with Mehlich I and DTPA extractors. Cadmium extraction from soil samples treated with sewage sludge incubated with Cd was greater with DTPA and HNO3 extractors. The different Cd sources added to sewage sludge affected the activity of amylases, arylsulphatases, dehydrogenases and proteases in the residue. Dry matter and grain production by sorghum were not affected by the treatments apppied to sewage sludge (incubation and no-incubation) and by the Cd sources. Cd extracted from the soil was affected by the incubation of sewage sludge after Cd contamination. / Orientador: Wanderley José de Melo / Coorientador: Gabriel Maurício Peruca de Melo / Banca: Marcos Omir Marques / Banca: Cássio Hamilton Abreu Junior / Mestre

abstract: Many manmade chemicals used in consumer products are ultimately washed down the drain and are collected in municipal sewers. Efficient chemical monitoring at wastewater treatment (WWT) plants thus may provide up-to-date information on chemical usage rates for epidemiological assessments. The objective of the present study was to extrapolate this concept, termed 'sewage epidemiology', to include municipal sewage sludge (MSS) in identifying and prioritizing contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). To test this the following specific aims were defined: i) to screen and identify CECs in nationally representative samples of MSS and to provide nationwide inventories of CECs in U.S. MSS; ii) to investigate the fate and persistence in MSS-amended soils, of sludge-borne hydrophobic CECs; and iii) to develop an analytical tool relying on contaminant levels in MSS as an indicator for identifying and prioritizing hydrophobic CECs. Chemicals that are primarily discharged to the sewage systems (alkylphenol surfactants) and widespread persistent organohalogen pollutants (perfluorochemicals and brominated flame retardants) were analyzed in nationally representative MSS samples. A meta-analysis showed that CECs contribute about 0.04-0.15% to the total dry mass of MSS, a mass equivalent of 2,700-7,900 metric tonnes of chemicals annually. An analysis of archived mesocoms from a sludge weathering study showed that 64 CECs persisted in MSS/soil mixtures over the course of the experiment, with half-lives ranging between 224 and >990 days; these results suggest an inherent persistence of CECs that accumulate in MSS. A comparison of the spectrum of chemicals (n=52) analyzed in nationally representative biological specimens from humans and MSS revealed 70% overlap. This observed co-occurrence of contaminants in both matrices suggests that MSS may serve as an indicator for ongoing human exposures and body burdens of pollutants in humans. In conclusion, I posit that this novel approach in sewage epidemiology may serve to pre-screen and prioritize the several thousands of known or suspected CECs to identify those that are most prone to pose a risk to human health and the environment. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Civil and Environmental Engineering 2013