The proper operation and safety management of water and wastewater treatment systems are essential for providing stable water service to the public. However, various natural disasters including floods, large storms, volcano eruptions and earthquakes threaten public water services by causing serious damage to water and wastewater treatment plants and pipeline systems. Korea is known as a country that is relatively safe from earthquakes, but the recent increase in the frequency of earthquakes has increased the need for a proper earthquake management system. Interest in research and the establishment of legal regulations has increased, especially since the large earthquake in Gyeongju in 2016. Currently, earthquakes in Korea are managed by legal regulations and guidelines integrated with other disasters such as floods and large storms. The legal system has long been controlled and relatively well managed, but technical research has made limited progress since it was considered in the past that Korea is safe from earthquake damage. Various technologies, including seismic design and earthquake forecasting, are required to minimize possible damages from earthquakes, so proper research is essential. This paper reviews the current state of technology development and legal management systems to prevent damages and restore water and wastewater treatment systems after earthquakes in Korea and other countries. High technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles, wireless networks and real-time monitoring systems are already being applied to water and wastewater treatment processes, and to further establish the optimal system for earthquake response in water and wastewater treatment facilities, continuous research in connection with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including information and communications technologies, is essential.
The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of sewerage facilities through I/I analysis by rainfall by selecting areas where storm overflow diverging chamber is remained due to the non-maintenance drainage equipment when the sewerage system was reconstructed as a separate sewer system. Research has shown that wet weather flow(WWF) increased from 106.2% to 154.8% compared to dry weather flow(DWF) in intercepting sewers, and that the WWF increased from 122.4% to 257.6% in comparison to DWF in storm overflow diverging chamber. As a result, owing to storm overflow diverging chamber of partially separate sewer system with untreated tributary of sewage treatment plant, rainfall-derived infiltration/inflow(RDII) has been analyzed 2.7 times higher than the areas without storm overflow diverging chamber. Meanwhile, infiltration quantity of this study area was relatively higher than that of other study areas. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce infiltration quantity through sewer pipe maintenance nearby river. Drainage equipment maintenance should be performed not to operate storm overflow diverging chamber in order to handle the appropriate sewage treatment plant capacity for rainfall because it is also expected that RDII due to rain will occur after maintenance. In conclusion, it is necessary to recognize aRDII(allowance of rainfall-derived infiltration/inflow) and to be reflected it on sewage treatment plant capacity because aRDII can occur even after maintenance to the complete separate sewer system.
As the modern society is rapidly developing and people become affluent in materials, many new chemical compounds in different forms of products (e.g., antibiotics, pesticides, detergents, personal care products and plastic goods) are produced, used, and disposed of to the environments. Some of them are persistently having a harmful impact on the environment and mimicking endocrine properties; in general they are present in the environment at low concentrations, so they are called organic pollutants. These organic micropollutants flow to sewage treatment plants via different routes. In this study, the generation characteristics, exposure pathways, detection levels, and environmental impacts of organic micropollutants were critically reviewed. In addition, currently available risk assessment methods and management systems for the compounds were reviewed. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), for example, has monitored organic micropollutants and set the monitoring and management of some of the compounds as a priority. To effectively manage organic micropollutants in sewer systems, therefore, we should first monitor organic micropollutants of potential concern and then make a watch list of specific substances systematically, as described in guidelines on listing water pollutants in industrial wastewater.
For economic evaluation of integrated operation to sewage facilities, benefit-cost analysis was performed to watershed sewage works project in 7 watershed areas, 156 facilities. In this study, the cost before and after integrated operation was compared and benefits are calculated from the reduction of operators, increasement treated pollution loads, reduction cost through operation convenience, reduction water consumption through effluent reuse, and improvement of life benefit. The result showed that cost was 8,500million won and benefit was 16,747million won, so benefit was 49% higher than cost. B/C analysis result showed that B/C ratio was 1.97 and it is similar to other researches. The benefits of integrated operation included convenience of data management, increase of emergency response, decrease of complains with sewage which was not reflected numerically, so the benefits of integrated operation were expected much greater than this result.
In accordance with the Watershed Sewer System Maintenance Plan enforced on February 2, 2013, the different compliance concentration of effluent limit be applied to effluent discharged from public sewage treatment works(PSTWs) in each watershed on the basis of water quality thereof. With the introduction of watershed sewer system, it is necessary to set the compliance concentration of effluent limit for PSTWs situated in the watershed, by region and PSTW size, to achieve water quality criteria for regional watersheds or target water quality under TMDL program. Watershed Environmental Agencies establish the Watershed Sewer System Maintenance Plan and set the compliance concentrations of effluent limit for PSTWs under the plan. The agencies plan to apply tougher effluent BOD concentration limits in Class Ⅰ to Ⅳ areas. Effluent BOD concentration limits will be toughened from 5~10 mg/L to 3 mg/L in class Ⅱ~Ⅲ areas, from 10mg/L to 5mg/L in class Ⅳ areas. Uniform application of effluent BOD concentration limits to PSTWs in the watershed sewer system need to be complemented considering type of sewage treatment technology employed and watershed characteristics. Therefore, this study presents method to determine the compliance concentration of effluent limit from PSTWs in the watershed.