Discharge of Industrial Wastewater to Urban Wastewater System: Challenges and Solutions

Discharge of industrial wastewater to urban wastewater system is a way of its management, especially within the cities. If it is not done in proportion to the system’s capacity and under supervision, it may damage urban collection, transfer and treatment systems.

In this study, impacts of industrial discharges on urban wastewater facilities and the related standards and regulations in the selected countries are reviewed.

The study shows Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Singapore, USA, and Australia and New Zealand consider 13, 10, 14, 22, 34 and 29 variables of industrial wastewater in their standards, respectively. Moreover, USA limits the flow ratio of industrial discharges to urban wastewater. In contrast, Iran has no standard for industrial discharges to urban wastewater facilities and there is just one guideline to regulate discharges in industrial towns, which consists eight variables. Moreover, the lack of assessment of urban wastewater network and treatment capacity to accept industrial discharges which, often due to deficiency of information and experience in this field, can disrupt sewage transmission and treatment processes.

As a result, setting national standard and guideline up to regulate industrial discharges to urban wastewater system, assessment of network and treatment plant capacity for accepting industrial discharges, and monitoring and supervision of these discharges to discover and prevent unauthorized discharges are critical measures to manage industrial wastewater especially within the cities in Iran.