• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.512-517
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• 2007

The limiting nutrient of eutrophication in freshwater bodies in Korea was examined and the phosphorus concentration standard for sewage treatment effluent was discussed. The weight ratio of N/P in 13 major reservoirs showed the range of 18 to 163, which implies phosphorus is more limited than nitrogen for algal growth. In the correlation analysis phosphorus showed higher correlation with chlorophyll-a concentration than with nitrogen. In the algal bioassay phosphorus spike test enhanced algal growth in all 25 samples of five reservoirs, while nitrogen was found to co-limit only in four samples. It confirms that phosphorus is the only limiting nutrient for eutrophication in Korean reservoirs. As many reservoirs are eutrophic in Korea, phosphorus control is critical for the management of water quality. The phosphorus standard of sewage treatment effluent in Korea was compared with other countries, and it can be concluded that phosphorus standard is too high to be effective in eutrophication control and a lower phosphorus standard is essential for the water quality improvement.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.216-225
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• 2018

Over the past 40 years, the public sector has continued to invest in the sewage treatment plants (STPs) in Korea. Currently, the domestic sewage treatment rate is over 90% with the enhancement of operating efficiency of the STPs, and water quality of major rivers has been continuously improved. However, COD and T-N indicators are stagnating or slightly worsening, and though advanced treatment facilities are installed in most of the STPs, there is a limit to the removal of nutrients. Since there are a lot of water pollution sources in the vicinity of the watershed because of high population density in Korea, it is essential to reduce the inflow of the nutrients in order to prevent the eutrophication of the rivers and lakes. While the effluent T-P standard in STPs has greatly strengthened since 2012, which results in the considerable investment for the improvement of treatment process in STPs for the last few years, it is necessary to strengthen the T-N standards, as the effluent standard of T-N has been maintained at 20 mg/L since 2002. In this study, based on the analysis of the effluent T-N standard status of major industrialized countries, and the domestic nitrogen load in public waters, the option of appropriate T-N standard level is reviewed, and the required investment costs and the effect of strengthening the standard are estimated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
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• 1999.10c
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• pp.663-669
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• 1999

The objective of this study are to examine the feasbility of reuse treated sewage effluent ofr agricultural water, and to obtain basic data for estabilishment of rational agricultural water quality standard. From this study, it appears that reuse of treated sewage as a supplemental irrigation water could be feasible and practical alternative for ultimate sewage disposal which often causes water quality problem to the receiving water body. For full scale applicatiion, further study is recommended on the secific guidelines of major water quality components and publc health.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.871-879
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• 2010

To figure out the removal efficiency of indicator and pathogenic bacteria by unit processes of a sewage treatment plant using activated sludge process, analyses were done for incoming sewage, influent and effluent of primary clarifier, aeration tank, secondary clarifier and final discharge conduit of the plant. A matrix of bacterial items (average of bacterial reduction [log/ml], p value of paired t-test, number of decreased cases of twenty analyses, removal percentage only for decreased cases) between incoming sewage and final effluent of the plant were heterotrophic plate counts (1.54, 0.000, 20, 95.01), total coliforms (1.38, 0.000, 19, 83.94), fecal coliforms (0.90, 0.000, 20, 94.84), fecal streptococci (0.90, 0.000, 20, 98.08), presumptive Salmonella (0.23, 0.561, 7, 99.09), and presumptive Shigella (1.02, 0.002, 15, 92.98). Total coliforms, fecal coliforms, heterotrophic plate counts, and fecal streptococci showed highest decrease through secondary clarifier about 1-log (p<0.001) between 88% and 96%, and primary clarifier represented the significant (p<0.05) decrease. However, final effluent through discharge conduit showed higher total coliforms and fecal streptococci than effluent of secondary clarifier (p<0.05). In addition, final effluent once violated the water quality standard while effluent of secondary clarifier satisfied the standard. Hence some control measures including elimination of deposits in discharge conduit or disinfection of final effluent are necessary.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.296-314
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• 2014

In recent years, Ministry of Environment (MOE) has been implementing a phased strengthening of the effluent standards for sewage treatment plants. In this regard, a comprehensive system should be developed to help check the appropriateness of such standards by specifying the grounds for standard-setting and investigating the current operation of sewage treatment plants clearly. It is necessary to establish a new standard-setting system for the effluent that is in a closer connection with the environmental criteria and rating systems. In the United States, the federal government provides guidelines on the least provisions and requirements for the Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs). Local governments set the same or stricter guidelines that reflect the characteristics of each state. In Japan, the sewage treatment plants are subject to both the effluent standards and the discharge acceptable limits to pubic waters under the sewerage law. Specific requirements and limits are set in accordance with local government regulations. The European Union imposes sewage treatment plants with different provisions for effluent standards, depending on the sensitivity of public waters to eutrophication. The effluent standards for sewage treatment plants are classified by pollutant loads discharged to receiving waters. MOE also needs to introduce systems for setting new parameter standards on a POTW effluent by applying statistical means and treatment efficiencies or optimal treatment techniques, as seen in the cases of the US National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) or the EU Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC).

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.276-287
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• 2013

Domestic sewage contains increasingly more pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), due to rising use of medicines, health supplement food and daily necessities. And various types of industrial wastewater from pollution sources in treatment areas could flow into the public sewerage treatment plants (PSTPs) in metropolitan areas. The conventional PSTPs are designed to treat suspended solids, biodegradable organics, nitrogen and phosphorous from residential and industrial areas and public facilities. However, toxic, conventional, and non-coventional pollutants from non-domestic sources that discharge into sewer system as well as domestic source with various chemicals could not be treated in the conventional PSTPs and discharged untreated to public basin. In this paper we aim to consider the establishment system of effluent standard of PSTPs in comparison with water quality standard of water environment and wastewater discharge regulation. And also we suggest the necessity of regulations on the pretreatment of industrial wastewater as part of efforts to improve water quality in sewerage systems and to protect public basin.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.241-251
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• 2016

As the Enforcement Ordinance of Environmental Policy Act was revised in 2013, total organic carbon(TOC) was added as an indicative parameter for organic matter in Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Environmental Criteria. Under these imminent circumstances, a regulatory standard is needed to achieve the proposed TOC limitation control water quality from the public sewage treatment plants(PSTWs). This study purposes to present the determination method for TOC effluent limitation at the PSTWs. Therefore we investigate the TOC effluent limitation of foreign countries such as EU, Germany and USA, and analyse the effluent water qualities of PSTWs. In using these TOC data, we review apprehensively the statistics-based, the technology-based, and the region(water quality)-based determination method of TOC effluent limitation for PSTWs.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.67 no.11
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• pp.1477-1485
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• 2018

There are two major issues for activated sludge process in sewage treatment plant. One is how to make sewage be more clean and the other is the energy saving in sewage treatment process. The major monitoring sewage qualities are chemical oxygen demand, phosphorus, nitrogen, suspended solid in effluent. These are transmitted to the national TMS(Telemetry Monitoring System) at every hour. If these exceed the environmental standard, the environmental charges imposed. So, these water qualities are to be controlled below the environmental standard in operation of sewage treatment plant. And recently, the energy saving is also important in process operation. Over 50% energy is consumed in blowers and motors for injection oxygen into aeration tank. So, with the water qualities to be controlled below the environmental standard, the energy saving also is to be accomplished for efficient plant management. Almost researches are aimed to control water quality without considering energy saving. AI techniques have been used for control water quality. AI modeling simulator provided the optimal control inputs(blower speed, waste sludge, return sludge) for control water quality. Blower speed is the main control input for activated sludge process. To make sewage be more clean, the excessive blower speed is supplied, but water quality is not better than the previous. In results, non necessary energy is consumed. In this paper we propose a new method that the energy saving also is to be accomplished with the water qualities to be controlled below the environmental standard for efficient plant management. Water qualities in only aeration tank are used the inputs of fuzzy models. Outputs of these models are chemical oxygen demand, phosphorus, nitrogen, suspended solid in effluent and have the environmental standards. In test, we found this method could save 10% energy than the previous methods.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.216-222
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• 2017

Recently, opinions on the need for revision regarding the nitrogen effluent standard of nitrogen from sewage treatment plant(STP) are consistently suggested. However, it is axiomatic that if nitrogen effluent standard is strengthened without a clear basis, it will cause confusion in domestic STP. In this research, nitrogen fraction was analyzed based on a long-term incubation method, according to STP capacity, and the linked treatment of industrial wastewater. As a result, NBDDON, which is difficult to treat in STP, ranged from 1.0 to 1.9 mg/L. larger DON and NBDDON/DON was detected in small STP (under 10,000 m3 /d) as opposed to the large STP. NBDDON/DON in industrial STP was about 0.7 and it was higher than municipal STP. This research result will be used in the important raw data for revision of nitrogen effluent standard of nitrogen from STP.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.61-68
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• 2000

The use of photo-catalytic processes in pollution abatement and resource has a significant economic importance. Therefore, the applications of photochemical oxidation of secondary effluent driven by UV, TiO2, TiO2/UV, H2O2/UV and TiO2/H2O2/UV, have been investigated in order to treat the secondary effluent from municipal sewage. Various experimental parameters such as BOD, CODcr, Nurbidity, total P, and SPC were examined in each photo-catalytic reaction system. The results showed that the application of single oxidant such as UV, TiO2 only has a minor effect on parameters reduction (CODcr, BOD, etc) to treat the secondary effluent, whereas the combinations of oxidants increase the removal efficiency. The best removal efficiency in every parameters was achieved by the combination of TiO2, H2O2 and UV. It was also found that the optimum amount of TiO2 for the treatment was 1g/ι to achieve water reuse standard. From the results, the photocatalytic reaction system can be an alternative as a post-treatment to treat the secondary effluent from municipal sewage.