Heavy metals in wastewater and treatment plant effluents

The findings of the Interstate Sanitary Commission's (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) routine heavy metals analyses of municipal wastewater treatment plants are presented. The results show that many plants receive and discharge heavy metals above prudent limits. In order to minimize the harmful effects of these heavy metals, state of the art techniques must be implemented to achieve as close to 100% removal as is possible before these metals enter the sewer system. This is especially important in areas where combined sewer systems allow wastewater to by pass treatment plants and discharge, untreated, directly into the receiving waterways.