Chapter 7 - Integrated sustainability impact assessment of trickling filter

Abstract

The trickling filter is widely used as the unit process in the secondary treatment technology of wastewater treatment before the evolution of the activated sludge process. Industries adopt trickling filters as a treatment option for their cost-effective and profound nature of recalcitrant pollutant removal. Though the ultimate aim of trickling filter is pollutant removal, the construction, operation, and dismantling phases of trickling filter that involves multiple actions, further, impact the environment, economic, and sociocultural components of sustainability. The objective of this chapter is to assess the impact of trickling filter as a secondary treatment unit of the sewage treatment plant in Hanamkonda—a rural town at Warangal in the southern region of India. The framework was set and ensured to include all the identified factors and criterion which are the factors behind the impacts. The integrated qualitative and quantitative sustainability impact assessment was carried out based on multiple brainstorming sessions and the Leopold matrix approach, respectively. By comparing the actual impact values with the permissible values, the decision was made and the mitigation measures were provided to reduce the impact. This current evaluation helped in formulating a basis for identifying synergies, conflicts, and trade-offs to develop more specific and operational objectives in the trickling filter to minimize the impacts. Besides, this study gained insight into the possible impacts of trickling filter in all the sustainable dimensions which can be extended to the other treatment units.