干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Reuse of treated wastewater is a favorable direction for solving water shortage problems and meeting environmental quality criteria. Domestic wastewater in isolated communities in and regions can be treated efficiently in a stabilization pond systems. The effluent quality can be further improved when stored in a series of stabilization reservoirs. There are a series of parameters, which characterize the effluent quality for agricultural reuse. The conventional biological parameters include fecal coliforms as a microbial indicator. The use of fecal coliforms does not reflect the viral pollution of the effluent due to the poor correlation with virus occurrence. Therefore, phages are proposed as enteric virus pollution indicators. Phages exhibit similar behavior and survival in aquatic environment, and their quantitative assessment is easy and a reliable enteric virus measure. Field results from the treatment plant of the City of Arad (Israel) reveal the possibility of characterizing the effluent quality in a stabilization pond and reservoir system. The treatment plant includes a porous rock dike, resembling a horizontal trickling filter.