Globally, 2.7 billion people rely upon septic systems to treat their wastewater, and septage handling and treatment is an important growing issue. Improperly treated septage can contaminate ground or surface water, and therefore the septage has historically been taken to a wastewater treatment plant or land-applied to fields to provide nutrients for crop production.
Some WWTPs do not accept septage due to a lack of capacity, unknown characteristics and load variability. The typical data referenced in the Domestic Septage Regulatory Guidance regarding septage characteristics is from the 1980s and 1990s. Since this time, septage characteristics have changed due to increased maintenance
