The fast increase of the swine production, specially in the west region of Santa Catarina, Brazil, did not have a parallel program for the valorisation of its dejection, not even processes for the treatment of the organic residues. Most of the producers keep their animals confined in small areas, having as a consequence the production of a large volume of wastes in the same place. This waste is diluted in water used to clean the bays, resulting in contamination of the watercourse. Thus, it is necessary to develop treatment processes to minimise the environmental problems caused by the swine breeding activities. The stabilisation ponds have been used due to its excellent efficiency in the removal of the organic matters, solids, nutrients and faecal coliforms; besides the low implantation and maintenance costs. This work was assisted in a series of four stabilisation ponds, real scale, treating swine wastes in Concórdia/SC at CNPSA. The ponds system was evaluated during a period of 20 months, objecting to get its principal work parameters, as well as information about the capital and operational costs, in order to adjust the equations to model and optimise the systems about the removal of the organic matters.
Stabilisation ponds; swine wastes; costs; models; optimisation
