Land Treatment Research and Development Program, Synthesis of Research Results

摘要

The major objective of the Corps of Engineers Land Treatment Research and Development Program was to provide, through research, definitive criteria and procedures to enable the cost-effective and environmentally safe use of land treatment of municipal wastewater. This research included long-term field experiments at different locations within the United States to establish design criteria, laboratory research to understand and solve fundamental problems, and evaluation of existing land treatment systems to document long-term performance. The information gathered from the land treatment research program has been published in more than 240 technical publications on regional planning, site selection, design procedures, mechanisms of wastewater renovation, site management, site monitoring and environmental effects. During the land treatment program, an active technology transfer effort was maintained to transmit research results directly to users. The LTRP clearly demonstrated that land treatment is an attractive alternative to other waste treatment practices. It was also shown that the direct benefits of the program, in terms of increased cost-effectiveness from improved design, were much greater than the program's cost. (Author)