Preparing for a Rainy Day - Overview of Treatment Technology Options for Wet-Weather Flow Management

Successful wet-weather flow management requires a multi-pronged approach. Planners and designers should consider a wide variety of source control, conveyance, and treatment alternatives to provide the optimum long-term solution for each watershed. Municipal utilities now have a larger variety of feasible treatment alternatives than ever, and many of today’s stateof-the-art technologies were not available a generation ago when most of North America’s water quality regulations and policies were crafted. Significant advances have been made since then, both in treatment technologies and in the profession’s understanding of wet-weather problems. Many of these “new” treatment technologies have been in operation for over a decade, proving their capabilities. This paper discusses many of these technologies, their potential advantages and disadvantages, and how each might fit into an existing treatment strategy and contribute to a utility’s water quality goals.