Environmental Analysis of Wastewater Treatment Plant Dhalli and Malyana (Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India): Analysis and Comparison

Abstract

A wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) treats the wastewater removes the harmful elements and makes the water feasible to reuse. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an analysis tool used for checking the product or process impact caused to the environment throughout its full life cycle. Introducing LCA in WWTP helps in understanding the impact caused by WWTP, although it is used for the benefit of the environment. This study is conducted on the low-density populated area, Dhalli and Malyana (Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India) WWTP, here OpenLCA software is used as it is open-source software. For analysis inventory data was collected from the WWTP site visit, government website, and databases. Both midpoint and endpoint impact assessments were analyzed.  It was observed that the maximum impact was on marine ecotoxicity, human health (carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic), terrestrial ecotoxicity, and global warming in the midpoint impact assessment. And in the endpoint impact assessment, the highest impact was on resource consumption. The three main reasons for these impacts were the constant use of electricity, lack of tertiary and sludge treatment, and lack of the reuse of treated water. In comparison, it was seen that Malyana WWTP has a higher impact than Dhalli WWTP.