Waste stabilization ponds as teaching and research tools

Abstract

In any campus where there is an excess of land or where a decorative pond is available, it is often possible to establish a system of waste stabilization ponds (WSP) to be used as an open air research laboratory, as source of water for watering the campus grounds and as a demonstration unit for the community at large. One such system, comprising one photosynthetic and one macrophyte pond in parallel, followed by one fish and one irrigation pond in series, was built at the Faro Polythecnic in Portugal. The ponds are proceeded by an underground unit formed by three septic tanks in series followed by two upflow anaerobic filters in parallel. This system is expected to receive 120m3/day of a mixed effluent coming from the sanitary facilities, the refectory and the fish processing laboratory, with concentrations of about 600mg/l in both BOD and SS.