2026-09-24 スタンフォード大学
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2026/09/bay-area-wastewater-plants-ratepayer-costs-research
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-026-00717-7
栄養塩排出管理における地域連携の重要性 Valuing regional coordination of nutrient discharge management
Sinan Abi Farraj, Akshay K. Rao & Meagan S. Mauter
Nature Water Published:24 September 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-026-00717-7
Abstract
Wastewater treatment plants are under pressure to meet nutrient discharge regulations while maintaining ratepayer affordability. Here we introduce Coordination for Lean Effective Affordable Nutrient Removal for Wastewater (CLEANRWastewater), a decision support tool for valuing innovative staged deployment and coordinated infrastructure strategies for wastewater treatment plants sharing a regulated watershed. Formulated as a multi-period, mixed-integer optimization framework and applied to a case study of three treatment facilities in the San Francisco Bay, this tool demonstrates that coordinating capital and operational decisions across facilities reduces the costs of subembayment nutrient removal by up to 48% (US$268 million). These jointly realized savings stem from facilities delaying capital-intensive upgrades and deploying lowest-cost treatment options at the subembayment level. The framework’s multi-period formulation uniquely incorporates time-varying constraints and accommodates uncertainty analysis around future nutrient loads. Quantifying the financial benefits of innovative infrastructure planning strategies may motivate utility managers to establish nutrient trading markets and coordinate regional infrastructure investments.
