Toxicity Tests for Ensuring Succesful Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant Operation

Industrial wastewaters are complex and can be polluted by non-biodegradable end toxic organic compounds and are a serious threat to the environment. Chemical procedure alone cannot provide sufficient information. A complete evaluation of wastewaters should include ecotoxicological tests too, especially concerning the complex wastewaters. In the literature review the authors attempted to establish which is the more promising and suitable aquatic toxicology test for sewage treatment plant influent toxicity monitoring. A variety of types of organisms representing different trophic levels and many different species are used for aquatic toxicity testing. Toxicity characterization would be needed both for influents and effluents of wastewater treatment plant. For the purpose of screening biological wastewater treatment influent, toxicity to activated sludge microorganisms is important and toxicology tests here used are respirometry and bioluminescence toxicology tests. Respirometry toxicity tests are easy, fast and inexpensive compared to other approaches. Bioluminescence has been widely used, the most thoroughly investigated test system is the Microtox. The toxicity tests have also been compared by different authors. International, national and regional authorities use these tools to meet various regulatory and legislative requirements. Importance of biotesting has been emphasized also in EU legislation.