Aquatic invertebrate biodiversity model to gauge effluent strength

Abstract

Biodiversity is a word that has been applied to numerous ecological and biological fields In the past few decades. Many governmental agencies and environmental conservation special interest groups have been preaching the importance of having biodiversity in a healthy ecological or biological system. The same technology used to analyze tree species diversity, fish population diversity, plant species diversity, natural stream species diversity, etc. has applicability to wastewater treatment. By determining the biodiversity of a wastewater effluent, the level of impact that the effluent has on the environment can be determined. The wastewater treatment stream can be thought of as a dynamic system with a biodiversity of microflora that treats Incoming wastewater. A biodiversity index can be determined by analyzing a waste stream for Its macro- and microinvertebrates (Mollusca, Crustacea, Plecoptera, Ollgochaeta, etc.). This biodiversity index is used to rate a waste stream as either clean, moderately polluted, or heavily polluted. Traditional (BOD,COD,TSS, Bioassay, basin hydraulics, etc.) methods of wastewater analysis in addition to macro- and micro-invertebrate analyses were used to analyze the current wastewater pond of an existing industrial park's wastewater treatment plant. The wastewater was then analyzed using the biodiversity index approach to gauge effluent strength. This approach of using biodiversity as a means of rating the effluents strength (as developed within this thesis) has much promise for determining more precisely the impact the discharge wastewater will have on its receiving stream.