Overview of Community Waste Management Schemes operating in rural South Australia: The benefit of replacing Waste Stabilisation Ponds with High Rate Algal Ponds

"The work described in this paper compares the performance of a high rate algal pond and a Waste Stabilisation Pond system. To achieve the comparison water samples were collected at regular intervals from both the inlet and outlet of each system and tested for E coli, turbidity, suspended solids, chlorophyll a, BOD5, and the nutrients NH4, NO3, NO2, and PO4. Over a 2 year period at both sites there was continuous logging of weather data (air temperature, wind speed and direction, rainfall, humidity, total solar radiation and ultraviolet (UV) radiation) and water data ( pH, temperature and Dissolved Oxygen). Comparison is made between the removal rate of the key nutrients and E coli and also between key water parameters. Of great importance in Australian conditions is the ability to harvest and re-use treated water. The paper also compares the percent of influent water lost to evaporation from the two systems."