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Using Biodegradation Kinetics to Determine Toxic Pollutant Removal in Ventura County Wastewater Treatment Plants

CSEF · 2026 Environmental Engineering (Senior Division)

Neev Goudar

Overview

Benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) are common environmental pollutants found in air, groundwater, and soil. These chemicals pose serious health risks including cancer and neurotoxicity. Wastewater treatment plants rely on bacteria to biologically degrade contaminants, but the effectiveness of this process depends on how quickly bacteria can grow and break down these compounds. This project evaluated whether Ventura County wastewater treatment plants have sufficient biological treatment capacity to remove occasional BTX contamination. Published biodegradation kinetic data from scientific literature were analyzed to determine bacterial growth rates for benzene and toluene degradation. These studies indicated that the minimum sludge retention time (SRT) required for microbial degradation was approximately 3 hours. Because real wastewater treatment systems operate under variable environmental conditions, a safety factor of 50 was applied to this theoretical minimum. This resulted in a design sludge retention time of 150 hours, or 6.25 days. This safety-adjusted SRT was compared with sludge retention time ranges reported for wastewater treatment plants in Ventura County. The comparison showed that these plants operate at SRT values of 10 – 25 days that were significantly greater than 6.25 days, indicating that they provide sufficient time for bacterial populations to degrade BTX compounds. These results suggest that Ventura County wastewater treatment plants can handle occasional BTX contamination events and demonstrate how biodegradation kinetics and engineering safety factors can be used to evaluate treatment capacity of wastewater treatment systems.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2026 Environmental Engineering (Senior Division) · Entry S-11-43

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