2020 Eckenfelder Lecture Series: Nutrient Removal Fundamentals

Nutrient Removal: Applied Fundamentals:

A sound understanding of treatment process fundamentals is essential to all aspects of nutrient removal decision making including capital project planning, detailed design, facility operation, and process optimization. This presentation will provide an overview of applied nutrient removal fundamentals. Fundamentals will be presented with emphasis on practical design and operational considerations and approaches. Three core topics will be addressed: 1) adding phosphorus removal capability; 2) adding nitrogen removal capability; and 3) enhancing performance at existing nutrient removal facilities. Case studies will be used as examples to illustrate fundamental concepts and approaches.

Nutrient Regulations in Texas:


This presentation will provide a brief overview of the nutrient regulations in Texas beginning with a summary of EPA’s national nutrient strategy and continuing with the history and status of numeric nutrient criteria in Texas. Recent developments with TPDES Permits for four Texas municipalities suggest that TCEQ is taking a new and different approach to nutrient limits in Texas, particularly when it comes to discharges to rivers and streams. This presentation will provide the latest status of this approach to total phosphorus (TP) limits. It has the potential to affect thousands of treatment plants in Texas that discharge to rivers and streams. TP limits require significant capital and operational changes at wastewater treatment plants and add extra operational responsibilities to the plant operators. Therefore, a good understanding of TCEQ's permitting strategy is crucial for plant operators who might receive TP limits in their permits so that they can operate their plants to meet the new TP limits.

Distinguished panelists include:

  • H. David Stensel, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
  • Bryce Figdore, Ph.D., P.E.,HDR, Bellevue, Washington
  • Raj Bhattarai, P.E., DEE, President of Clean Water Strategies


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