Reduction of naturally occurring enteroviruses by wastewater treatment processes

The levels of cytopathic enteroviruses at two wastewater-treatment works were monitored over a period of 9 months. The maximum level of virus at works 1 was 72500 p.f.u. l-1 and at works 2, 57500 p.f.u. l-1. Examination of process efficiency showed an overall reduction of 63% for works 1 and 26% for works 2 when used without lagooning. When lagooning was employed at the second works, virus reduction was 97%. Individual treatment processes showed poor reduction of virus levels. Sedimentation and rapid sand filtration had no significant effect on levels whilst both percolating filtration and activated sludge showed some reduction. Only lagooning resulted in substantial reductions of virus levels.