During the past several years big changes have been observed in waste water disposal, noticeable particularly in the improvement of water protection and sewage treatment. An important element of waste water disposal still requiring improvement is a low development of sewage systems in rural and urban areas. The main problem is an increasing amount of sludge, high degree of sediment hydration and considerable ability to anaerobic decomposition, a lack of areas for managing sediments near big cities and deposits of sediments on storage areas. Selected issues of waste water disposal and sludge handling in the Mazovian Province against a background of waste water disposal and sludge handling in Poland were presented in the article.
Lake Mellah close to the Mediterranean Sea in north-eastern Algeria belongs to valuable ornithological sites with nu-merous, often migratory, birds. To achieve the research goal, seventeen (17) sampling points were sampled based on the urbanization of the watershed. Water samples were taken at different wadis levels (upstream and downstream of settle-ments), as well as at the wastewater treatment plant and in Lake Mellah based on four measurement campaigns conducted at one frequency seasonal (high water, low water) during the year (2011/2012). Biological parameters (coliform faecal bac-teria, streptococci) were analysed in water of the lake and its affluents in the laboratory of the Department of Health and Population, El Taref by the most probable number (MPN) technique of the Mac Grady table taken from various points. Ob-tained results were processed by the use of Bourgeois ratio (coliform faecal bacteria: streptococci) to indicate the origin offaecal contamination of waters and to establish maps of the spatio-temporal evolution of this ratio by the software Surfer 9. This way we obtained information of contamination of human origin during the dry season coming from domestic waste waters. In winter the ratio showed animal prevalence of contamination coming primarily from Animal Park in El Kala.
Chalcedonite is a diatomaceous sedimentary rock, which, on account of a very small occurrence area, is included into a group of unique rocks. It occurs at Dęborzynka, Gapinin, Lubocz and Teofilów deposits, located on the Rawska Plateau in the region of Tomaszów Mazowiecki and Nowe Miasto. The deposit in Teofilów is the only documented one and it is now being exploited. The surface of this deposit is 577 437 m2 and its geological resources were determined to be 21.587 - 106 kg (21 587.0 thousand tones). The main component of this rock is chalcedon (69.0-96.6 vol.%), however quartz, opal, iron hydroxides, pyrite, manganese compounds and clay minerals occur in small quantities. The active surface of chalcedonite is relatively small and it was determined as 3-6 m2/g. Chalcedonite had a mesoporous structure of a significantly high pore homogeneity, and the total volume of these pores was 0.03-0.04 cm3/g. On account of its small spatial distribution chalcedonite is a unique rock, which has multi-resource properties. It is useful for manufacturing perlite-like material, crystobalite, wollastonite and mullite. It was also found to be a valuable raw material for the production of pastes, scouring powders, grinder tools and also as good filler for the production of : paints, varnishes, enamel ware, lute and putty materials. Because of its mesoporous structure and due to extended outer surface of the grains, chalcedonite is utilized in water treatment technology, mostly as an effective filtration material. A high usefulness of chalcedonite bed for manganese and iron removal from water shows mostly the presence of a low height of iron removal zone in the filter, and it is also manifested by a relatively short time of introduction into effective manganese(II) removal, as well as by good hydraulic properties of the material, which enable to achieve high mass capacities of the filter and to reach long filtration cycles. Chalcedonit is a very good carrier of manganese oxides and its surface modification of leads to the creation of chemically active bed, which enables removal of manganese(II) from water with high efficiency and without the introduction process. Chalcedonite bed effective removes of ammonia nitrogen from the water in the process of nitrification and waste water treatment. Chalcedonite can be also taken into account as a sorbent for the removal of oil spills.
The ground source of drinking water for the village of Skalice nad Svitavou is located 35 km North of Brno (Czech Republic). An evaluation of developments in selected indicators of water quality in this groundwater source in the period 2013–2017 was the essence of this work. The data was provided by Vodárenská akciová společnost, a.s., i.e. the operator. At the same time, annual monitoring of water quality in the Úmoří stream, which flows through the catchment area and can affect the quality of groundwater, was carried out. Water samples were collected in 2017–2018 from 6 profiles on the Úmoří stream and its two tributaries. Raw water from the groundwater source does not meet the requirements for drinking water in some indicators and needs to be treated. Monitoring of surface water shows that the most problematic indicator is total phosphorus, the concentration of which exceeded limit values on all sampling profiles. The highest values were found in the tributaries, where total phosphorus concentrations exceeded 10 mg∙dm–3. There are 12 municipalities in the area of interest, only two of which have their own sewage treatment plant. It is clear from the results that wastewater in some municipalities is discharged directly into the recipient and is the cause of above-limit concentrations of both phosphorus and nitrogen. Intensively used agricultural land is another major source of pollution. Based on an analysis of sources of pollution, corrective measures have been proposed to improve the quality of surface and groundwater in the area.