TOC Standards for Sustainably Managing Refractory Organic Matter in Swine Wastewater Effluent

Jae-Hong Park, Hong-Duck Ryu, Eu-Gene Chung (), Seong-Wook Oa and Yong-Seok Kim
Additional contact information
Jae-Hong Park: Environmental Resources Research Department, National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), Gyeongseo-dong, Seo-gu, Incheon 22689, Korea
Hong-Duck Ryu: Water Environment Research Department, National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), Gyeongseo-dong, Seo-gu, Incheon 22689, Korea
Eu-Gene Chung: Water Environment Research Department, National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), Gyeongseo-dong, Seo-gu, Incheon 22689, Korea
Seong-Wook Oa: Department of Railroad, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Woosong University, Dong-gu, Daejeon 34606, Korea
Yong-Seok Kim: Water Environment Research Department, National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), Gyeongseo-dong, Seo-gu, Incheon 22689, Korea

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 16, 1-21

Abstract: Swine wastewater effluent is a key source of water contamination since it contains high levels of nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as nitrates and refractory organic matter (ROM). ROM refers to organic compounds that are usually resistant to microbial degradation. When swine wastewater effluent containing high levels of ROM is subsequently discharged into rivers and streams without being adequately treated, purification costs for drinking water increase and there remains a possibility for harmful substances to enter the human body. In this study, we introduce new methods for setting total organic carbon (TOC) water quality standards for discharging swine wastewater effluent containing high levels of ROM after treatment. To set the TOC water quality standards, various analysis methods based on statistics, technology, and experience based on operational data of livestock-manure treatment facilities were applied. In addition, the achievability of the proposed TOC standards in livestock-manure treatment facilities and the financial burden of their implementation on livestock farms were also reviewed. Here, we set tentative values that include all of our results derived from each methodology and set the TOC standards to levels that can be achieved through the normal operation of swine-wastewater treatment facilities (60 mg/L for public treatment facilities and 140 mg/L for treatment facilities operated by individual farms). When setting TOC standards, both single and combined methodologies should be considered and employed after comprehensively assessing livestock management policies, regional conditions, and the burden on stakeholders.

Keywords: total organic carbon; water quality standard; refractory organic matter; swine-manure treatment facility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10092/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10092/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10092-:d:888505

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().