The quality of effluent in your treatment plant is of great importance. The characteristics of the effluent determine the important factors that are related to it. The biological, chemical, and physical properties that affect the quality of effluent must be considered while designing the treatment plant. Some of the parameters that need to be considered are.

• Size of the Effluent Treatment Plant: You need to decide how large the effluent treatment plant needs to be. So that you get the hydraulic computations right, you need to compute the estimated effluent inflow into the plant as well as the size of the conveying pipes and effluent channels.
• Properly estimate the effluent inflow: You will also need to incorporate the design in such a way that the inflow of effluent can be accounted for and built scaly in the foreseeable future.
• Estimate the seasonal variations: You will also need to estimate the seasonal variations in the size of the inflow. Moreover, there could be larger inflows during the day compared to the night. What’s more, the inflow is likely to be greater during the rainy season. This inflow needs to be stabilized or made near-constant so that the treatment process downstream remains functional.
• Use of equalization tanks and ponds: Such tanks and ponds offer additional benefits. In many cases, toxic substances present in the effluent can affect the effluent processes. Thus the toxic effluent can be reduced by diluting it in equalization ponds with the help of effluent that is composed of lesser toxins.
• Capability to withstand shock loads: While designing the plant, you should also consider the fact that it needs to be able to withstand the shock loads during festival seasons such as Christmas and New Year. The effluent load can also increase during various festivals.
• The physical characteristics of the effluent: You need to consider the physical characteristics of the effluent while designing your plant. This includes the color of the effluent, the constituent solids, its temperature, and even odor. This also means that the presence of suspended solids indicates the poor quality of effluent that makes the treatment difficult.
• What about solid material: Solid particles can consist of a variety of material such as grease or floating debris. This indicates that the effluent has not been effectively treated earlier.
• Other factors: Other factors include turbidity of effluent, the quantity of silt present, and also the temperature of the effluent. An unfavorable temperature can also impair the necessary biological as well as chemical processes.

To conclude, it is essential that inorganic chemicals, heavy metals, toxic metals, etc. need special treatment processes. The scarcity of water is also an important factor that needs to be considered. If you risk contaminating groundwater or a nearby running stream or river, then you will need to consider better techniques for effluent treatment plant design.