Surpassing Tomorrow's Standards with Today's Lagoons – Performance of an Innovative Sequencing Batch Aerated Lagoon (SBAL) Process

An innovative, cost-effective lagoon system, sequencing batch aerated lagoon (SBAL) process, developed by Iowa State university and SEA Solutions, Inc., aims to do disinfection, solid digestion, nitrification, and denitrification simultaneously in one lagoon cell for meeting this coming stringent limitations from treating domestic wastewaters. The wastewater lagoon system in the City of Dunlap with the population of 1,113 was upgraded to adopt the SBAL process which carries out in minimum of two earthen lagoons. The average effluent of NH4+-N, NO2−-N + NO3−-N , total suspended solid (TSS), five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), and E. Coli from the upgraded Dunlap wastewater lagoon system were 0.3 mg/L-N, 3.3 mg/L-N, 41.8 mg/L, 21.0 mg/L, and 11.4 # organism/100 ml, respectively. Therefore, this study has proved that the SBAL is one of alternatives to upgrade the existing lagoon systems to meet coming more stringent regulations economically.