Management of the loads of public water treatment plants - ARAFIT

Status

ongoing

Summary

The municipial water and waste water management needs new approaches in front of a background of new international and national laws and regulations. They range from production integrated water minimisation concepts, zero emission concepts of production processes to sustainable regional management strategies.

The project ARAFIT aims at developing conceptual strategies based on a profound systems analysis in an iterative participative process, which considers the needs of an integrated least cost planning sustainable water management of domestic water consumption and commercial and industrial water consumption. Beyond singular optimisation efforts, integrated approaches to develop win/win solutions for the whole region are developed. ARAFIT will make a contribution to the overall goals of the programme "Fabrik der Zukunft" by elaborating needs based solutions and cooperative solution processes for the prevention of environmental impacts. The best possible efficient service of infrastructure in handling the resource water will be strived for in a partnership of companies and the POTP (public owned waste water treatment plant).

The results and conclusions of the project will be an important input for the implementation of the EU water framework directive, which aims at a strengthening of a participative approach between the different actors in the whole catchment area of the water association.

The concept is practically minded in several respects. It focuses on the methods of water extraction (water, waste water, resources needed in water preparation and treatment), considers the quality needs of production and actual production sequences and conditions, researches optimisation potentials by creating win/win solutions for the industrial and commercial users, the domestic consumers and the association. It demonstrates that such integrate approaches can initiate sustainable use of the resource water preserving natural resources and at the same time serving the needs of the consumers.

All the relevant regional actors are included in the project team. It consists of the regional water supply and treatment association, the significant water consuming companies, the planning company which designed the sewers and the treatment plant as well as scientific consultants which contribute with a profound systems analysis, data collection and interpretation and the moderation of the participative process aiming at identifying the needs of the consumers and suppliers and researching win/win situation focussing at effective regional least cost planning to reduce the overall cost in operating the regional water supply and discharge system.

Sustainable cooperations between companies, the public and the waste water association are looked for, optimisation through cooperation and measures in the system are expected. These include the change of material flows between the companies of the regional, the coordination of water consumption and discharge in time, the usage or creating of storage capacity in the sewage system to provide for a balanced use of the system in terms of hydraulic load and properties of the water to reduce the cost for peak supply and treatment of very uneven, unbalanced loads in the biological water treatment.

The project consists of 3 modules: System analysis and data collection, mediation model, creation of a manual to be applied in other regions.

The system analysis contains proper chemical-physical and hydraulic measurements of water consumption and waste water to characterise the needs of the consumers accurately measuring the actual situation. In this step new probes will be used which can record the necessary data continuously at a fraction of the cost of presently used water analysis methods. Data characterising the actual performance of the sewers and the treatment plant are also collected to characterise the process and the material flows, as well as the resulting costs. On this basis then strategies for a sustainable least cost management of water in the area are developed.

The results are integrated into a praxis oriented manual for regional water associations. It consists of an effective mediation model and working materials for the individual steps, including the data collection and the moderation steps (background information, presentation material, worksheets, examples). This manual will be made available on a CD-Rom.