Wastewater Treatment Plan

The programme of urban wastewater treatment 2005 (PSARU 2005) is an instrument of hydrological planning of the ACA (Catalan Water Agency) that aims to define all actions intended to reducing pollution caused by domestic use of water, allowing the achievement of water quality standards.

Lines of action and intervention measures
The PSARU 2005 aims to achieve before 2015 a good state of surface water bodies through the development of protective measures, improvement and regeneration of these water.

The programme is included in Plan for the management of the river basin district of Catalonia, approved by the Catalan Government on 23rd November 2010.

Lines of action
  • Investments optimisation. Achieving an equivalent or better service at a more acceptable supported cost, where the part aimed at operation and maintenance becomes increasingly significant.
  • Urban growth sewage treatment. Strengthening of sewage treatment systems linked to changes in land systems (non-building to building land) will be responsibility of developers regarding the construction of both sewers and pipe sewers in the sewerage plant.
  • Definition of industrial discharges. Incorporation of quality objectives set in the Industrial Wastewater Sewerage Programme 2003 (PSARI 2003).
  • Reuse of purified wastewater: the future Programme for reuse (PRAC) carries out a complementary role to PSARU 2005.
  • Overflow discharge: identification of the overflow effects in strong and unexpected rainfalls to prevent a failure in quality objectives.

Intervention measures

Actions have been grouped into planned actions:

  • Actions in progress
  • Actions related to unfulfilment (or unfulfilment risk) of all legal obligations
  • Prevention of water bodies to be protected
  • Actions to reduce the presence of ammonia in rivers
  • Performances with funding commitments from European funds
  • Corrective actions in service systems
  • Improvement works for sludge management
  • New actions from more to least impact on environment
And candidate actions, which after having been taken into account, remain as candidates to be incorporated in the programme. They are primarily actions in urbanisations appeared in PSARU 2002, corresponding to sewage systems for less than 2,000 inhabitants-equivalent. To be funded, these urbanisations must fulfil their obligations under the terms set out in section 6.4.

Finally, the 2005 PSARU chooses not to consider the following actions:
  • Certain actions intended to solve sewage treatment of specific economic activities of particular interest
  • Actions resulting from insufficient administrative intervention
  • Actions not involving improvements to the environment and that, in some cases, are alternatives to an already scheduled action