Level of bacteriological contamination of the air in the wastewater treatment plant of the city of Celendín and surrounding areas

Mariela V.-A.; Darwin D.-M.; Marco S.-P. · Proceedings of the LACCEI international Multi-conference for Engineering, Education and Technology (2024) · DOI: 10.18687/laccei2024.1.1.1678

Resumen

Wastewater treatment plants represent an important source of aerobacteria, particularly parts with movement mechanisms and where there is forced aeration of wastewater (aeration tanks).Pumping and filtering operations favor the formation of bioparticles in the air (viruses, bacteria, fungi).The objective was to: Determine the level of bacteriological contamination of the air in the wastewater treatment plant of the city of Celendín.The plate sedimentation method was used, which consisted of exposing the petri dish to the outside for 5-10 minutes; plates with MacConkey and nutrient agar were used; 45 samples were collected in two times of the year (dry and rainy) at five monitoring stations; Measurements of relative humidity, wind direction and speed were made.As results, an average of 2101 UFC/m3 was obtained in the dry season and an average of 1349 UFC/m3 in the wet season; Station 02 located in the WWTP had a concentration of 3240 UFC/m3 and station 01, 500 meters from it, had the lowest concentration with 780 UFC/m3, indicating that the greater the location from the plant, the lower the concentration of microorganisms will be., this due to the direction and speed of the wind; concluding that the level of bacteriological contamination of the air is very high, exceeding the standard proposed by the EUR 14988 standard (2000 UFC/m3), during dry season periods, unlike the rainy season, which was lower than specified.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional de Cajamarca; Universidad Privada del Norte