Sewage treatment through the activated sludge system in Ribeirão Preto, SP: evaluation of heavy metal removal

Author(s)

Aline da Silva Oliveira

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Ribeirão Preto.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC)
• Defense date: 2006-02-01

Examining board members

Susana Segura Muñoz; Valdir Schalch; Angela Maria Magosso Takayanagui

• Advisor: Susana Segura Muñoz

Abstract

Sewage treatment systems are considered basic infrastructural requisites for urban societies, as they allow for the control and prevention of many diseases and create hygiene conditions that promote public health. Urban and industrial effluents not only carry a microbiological load, but their constituent elements can contain various kinds of chemical pollutants that affect human health. Chemical elements include heavy metals which, if removed inappropriately during the treatment process, can cause significant pollution in the receiving body and represent a risk for human and environmental health. In Ribeirão Preto – SP, Brazil, there are two sewage treatment stations (ETE), one of which is ETE-Caiçara, functioning since 2000, and the other ETE-Ribeirão Preto, since 2002. This study aimed to evaluate heavy metal levels in urban effluents before and after treatment by means of the Activated Sludge System at the ETE-Ribeirão Preto, as well as to evaluate heavy metal levels in the sludge formed during sewage treatment through the activated sludge, considering its potential use for agricultural purposes. We analyzed the following metals in raw and treated wastewater: Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Pb and Zn, using Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS-GF), Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry with Hydride Generation (AAS-HG) and Flame-Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS-Flame). In the sludge, we analyzed the following metals: As, Be, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn, TI, V and Zn, using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS), Inductively Coupled Optical Emissions Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS-GF). The obtained data revealed that the heavy metal levels present in the wastewater samples remain within the values determined by Resolution No. 357/2005, which establishes effluent emission conditions and norms. Furthermore, we observed great variations in the removal of different kinds of metals. Metal values recorded for sludge were within the maximum permitted levels established by the Environmental Sanitation Company (CETESB), São Paulo, Brazil for agricultural use of sludge. This study evidences the importance and the function of an ETE, that is, to treat wastewater that can cause environmental impacts in the water bodies that will receive these effluents, as well as to make available sludge for agricultural use, guaranteeing that legislation is being complied with and, hence, producing information for the authorities responsible for sewage treatment in Ribeirão Preto-SP. (AU)