Background Waste water has long been a significant environmental challenge as recognised in EU Directives on Urban Waste Water (91/271/EEC) and on Integrated River Basin Management (2000/60/EC). Whether from industry or households, waste water can contain a number of elements, chemicals or nutrients that are contaminating to the natural environment. Wastewater treatment plants do an increasing amount to clean up waste water before it is discharged to the environment. However, one of the remaining challenges of managing wastewater discharge into the environment is that the volume of wastewater goes up and down at different times. This creates periods when wastewater treatment plants are functioning at less than capacity and times when they may be overstretched. The annual loading of wastewater discharge from sewage treatment plants to the environment could be reduced significantly, if a better equalisation and distribution of wastewater input into the treatment plants was realised. This would allow treatment plants to run closer to optimal capacity, producing environmental and financial benefits. Objectives The overall objective of the IWPM project was to demonstrate how wastewater management and treatment technologies could be improved through the use of an innovative Integrated Wastewater Purification Management (IWPM) system. This ultimately sought to increase the quality of effluent entering rivers and reduce wastewater management costs. The specific objective of the project was to demonstrate integrated wastewater purification through a new combination of two sewage treatment plants via electronic (remote control) and physical (biologically activated pipes) connections. This would integrate their technical capacities to enable equalisation of the inflow peaks and the optimal distribution of nutrients. The project planned to assess the success of the new IWPM and its potential transferability to other EU countries. Results The IWPM project successfully introduced an innovative and automated system to control inflows to wastewater treatment plans and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of removing contaminants from the water. The new system was found to be economically beneficial compared to a conventional solution and the energy balance and the biological activity were even better than expected. The project installed 16km of pipes to connect two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) at Bad Essen – often overloaded - and Ostercappeln – often under-loaded. Three pumping stations were constructed - one at each plant and one half way between the two – and an electronic monitoring and control system installed. Additional constructions to improve the wastewater purification system included covering the pre-treatment basin at Ostercappeln, a measurement unit for controlling the inflow and a building for a screen unit. An Enhanced Sludge Treatment (EST) system was designed based on a floating bio-reactor (FBR) for separated sludge-liquid decontamination. However, laboratory tests for all installations and equipment of the Integrated Wastewater Purification Management (IWPM) system revealed that the FBR was obsolete. The multi-functional sequencing batch reactor (MSBR) had a much larger biological purification capacity than foreseen. Water toxicity decreased to nearly zero once the wastewater had undergone a stripping process, reducing the volatile organic compounds (VOC) and ammonia. The full IWPM system was tested for three different scenarios with different loads in the connection pipes from both treatment plants. Sludge optimisation tests were carried out to test mechanical and electrical components and the system as a whole, including the sludge transfer by the pipe connection and its energy consumption, maximum loads of COD, temperature limitations and nitrogenous removal cleaning capacity of the MSBR. The monitoring and control system was also tested successfully at both plants. The MSBR worked effectively as a buffer to equalise inflows and the tests showed that the treatment process worked well, for example reducing nitrogen by almost 35% more than expected. The Environmental Impact Assessment was conducted which confirmed only minor environmental impact from the construction work and reduced organic matter and nutrient outflow to the the Lake Duemmer catchment. A cost-benefit analysis highlighted that connecting the two plants in Germany reduced costs by €3.3 million, so would soon offset the necessary investment. Project partners conducted transferability studies for five countries - Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Croatia. However, these highlighted a preference for new WWTPs in these countries rather than modifications. There was more interest in transferring the system to other ‘old Member States, notable from Chiclana in Spain and Namur in Belgium. Exchange visits were organised and a workshop held in Chiclana. It seems likely the IWPM project idea will be implemented between plants in Spain. Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).