Temperature is categorized as which type of wastewater characteristic?

• A. Chemical
• B. Biological
• C. Physical
• D. Radiological

Answer: (C)

Temperature is a physical characteristic because it describes the wastewater’s thermal state—the amount of heat energy present—without indicating chemical composition, biological content, or radioactivity. It directly affects physical properties like viscosity, gas solubility, and settling behavior, and it can influence reaction rates in treatment processes. It is not a chemical property, since that would refer to substances and their chemical makeup or reactions; not a biological property, which concerns living organisms; and not radiological, which relates to radioactivity.