The swine manure contributes significantly to the degradation of natural resources and to decrease the quality of life in the southern state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. The excess of manure produced by the large number of pigs per unit area hinders the solution of the problem. This study aimed to evaluate the behavior of a system developed to treat swine manure, in series and in real scale, composed of anaerobic units, aerobic units and post-treatment. The parameters analyzed were: BOD, COD, TP, PO4-P, NH3-N, TKN, pH, chlorophyll a, algal biomass, total coliforms and fecal coliforms (Escherichia coli). The system showed that, after one year of operation, the removal efficiencies were satisfactory for organic matter and nutrients, reaching values of 97% for BOD, 95% for COD, 88% for N-NH3 and 74% for PT/P-PO4, even with variations in flow and organic load applied. However the removal of fecal coliforms in the aerobic units was low, decreasing only 0.86 log units in the aerated facultative pond and 0.80 log units in the maturation pond.
anaerobic reactors; stabilization ponds; rock filter
