7 Del. Admin. Code § 7103-37.0
Current through Register Vol. 28, No. 4, October 1, 2024
Section 7103-37.0 - Economic Considerations37.1 The number of publicly owned municipal wastewater irrigation systems in the United States was reported by EPA to be 839 in 1981 (7). The addition of industrial and privately owned land treatment systems and the publicly owned systems installed since 1981 likely brings the total number of land application systems to over 2,000 systems in 1987. Therefore, many communities and industries have found land treatment to be an economical waste treatment alternative.37.2 There is not a good summary of economic data on land treatment systems in Delaware. However, enough systems have been installed in other states to provide example calculations for a range of community sizes and situations where a land treatment system may be considered. he best sources of this information are other municipalities and industries that have land treatment systems and engineering consultants who have designed these systems.37.3 Some EPA and U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) publications provide economic analysis of land treatment systems (8, 9, 10) for municipal wastewater. The EPA Process Design Manual (7) provides an example for wastewater irrigation which includes economic analysis based on the techniques presented in reference (8).37.4 The USDA publication's cost analysis (10) resulted in the following conclusions for land treatment of municipal wastewater:37.5 Land application of wastewater is a cost-effective method for advanced wastewater treatment.37.6 Compared with conventional advanced wastewater treatment technologies, land application is less expensive for facilities treating less than 5 million gallons of wastewater per day and may be cost-effective for larger systems depending on land availability and distance from the treatment plant.37.7 The publication also analyzes factors such as crop selection, land costs, effluent transmission, public health constraints, storage and hydraulic loading. This type of publication is limited in its applicability of economic data to situations other than those specifically used in its analysis, but the concepts of what economic factors and analysis techniques to use are applicable to other situations.7 Del. Admin. Code § 7103-37.0