ECOLO CHIEF Wastewater Treatment Plant, Mircze, Lublin Voivodeship

ECOLO CHIEF is a municipal wastewater treatment plant located in Mircze, a village in the Lublin Voivodeship of eastern Poland. The plant serves a population of approximately 722 residents, making it a small-scale facility within the region's wastewater infrastructure. It operates under Poland's implementation of the EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC), which sets treatment standards based on agglomeration size. The plant provides secondary treatment, which involves biological processes to reduce organic matter and suspended solids. With a designed capacity of 2013 m³/day and a current discharge volume of about 103 m³/day, the facility operates well below its capacity. Secondary treatment is the minimum standard required under the EU directive for freshwater discharges from agglomerations of this size. The treated effluent is discharged into local watercourses that eventually drain into the Bug River, a major tributary of the Narew and Vistula rivers, which flow into the Baltic Sea. The plant plays a key role in protecting the local watershed from untreated sewage, supporting water quality in the region's sensitive river ecosystems.

The plant discharges into small streams that feed into the Huczwa River, a tributary of the Bug River. The Bug River flows northward along the Polish-Ukrainian border before joining the Narew River, which ultimately reaches the Baltic Sea via the Vistula. This watershed supports diverse aquatic life and is part of an important ecological corridor in eastern Poland. The secondary treatment provided by the plant helps reduce nutrient loads that could otherwise contribute to eutrophication in downstream waters.