A risk-based assessment framework to guide cost effective environmental protection from wastewater discharges

Wastewater must be treated to remove four classes of pollutants to levels that regulators consider safe for discharge to the environment: these are nutrients, micropollutants, total suspended solids and pathogens. Utilities are granted licenses to discharge based on the performance of their wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and legislation-derived guidelines which consider the social, economic, and environmental impacts of wastewater discharge. The problem is that there are substantial interpretative differences between States and jurisdictions. This research established a standard risk assessment framework that provides a transparent method for assessing the relative benefits of different disposal and treatment options, and which can be applied uniformly across Australia.