The pipes that take waste from your home or business to the sewer main are only large enough to remove toilet paper and human waste. From there it continues on until it reaches a wastewater treatment plant where the wastewater is treated so as to remove pollutants before it returns to the environment.
When non-biodegradable items are flushed, such as sanitary wipes, this interferes the public wastewater system potentially causing blockages and overflows and with processes at the plant. Usually, sanitary sewers use gravity to carry the wastewater away. Sanitary sewers are accessed via manholes for routine maintenance and repair. Clean-outs located on your property provide access to the part of the sanitary sewer that goes from your home to the sewer main in the street.
Storm sewers also called surface sewers carry rainwater and melting snow storm sewers are not designed to carry wastewater from roofs and roads and channel it into streams, rivers, and other bodies of water. When it rains or when snow melts water enters storm sewers via manholes, pipes, storm drain inlets, open ditches, etc. This water is then carried away until it eventually flows directly into streams, rivers, and waterways without having been treated.
This is why you should never put any kind of hazardous waste down a storm drain. This includes things like paint, solvents, used motor oil, and cleaning liquids. They can damage rivers, lakes, wetlands, and even poison wildlife. Storm sewers can also get clogged with leaves, litter, and other debris and when this happens there can be flooding. How do sewer systems work?
What is a storm sewer? How do wastewater treatment plants work? Pumps draw the sewage through deep-rock tunnels under the harbor to Deer Island. Preliminary Treatment Mud and sand settle in a tank called a grit chamber.
Later, this material, known as grit and screenings, is taken to a landfill for environmentally safe disposal. This primary treatment removes very few toxic chemicals. Secondary Treatment In the secondary treatment plant oxygen is added to the wastewater to speed up the growth of micro-organisms. These microbes then consume the wastes and settle to the bottom of the secondary settling tanks. A significant proportion of toxic chemicals are also removed by this process.
The remaining wastewater is disinfected before it is discharged to the receiving waters Massachusetts Bay. This stream of treated wastewater, known as effluent, travels through a 9. The tunnel's last mile and a quarter include 55 separate release points known as "diffusers. Sludge from primary and secondary treatment is processed further in sludge digesters, where it is mixed and heated to reduce its volume and kill disease-causing bacteria.
It is then transported through the Inter-Island Tunnel to the pelletizing plant in Quincy, where it is dewatered, heat-dried and converted to a pellet fertilizer for use in agriculture, forestry and land reclamation. If excessive levels of toxic chemicals are allowed to enter the system, they could either prevent the safe application of sludge as fertilizer or threaten the marine environment if discharged to ocean waters.
Pump stations apply pressure to the water in the pipe system in order to give it the momentum to keep moving. As mentioned, the water flows through these large pipes, called water mains, that are buried underneath the roads and sidewalks and travel to different destinations.
These water mains are connected to your homes, apartments and businesses through smaller pipes, or water lines. However, if water pipelines burst in your home, it is your responsibility to fix them and you or your water and sewer line insurance will usually cover pipe replacement or repair costs.
The rounds of treatment depend on the municipality and how contaminated the water is. The first stage of treatment removes sand, gravel and other particles from the water. Usually, preliminary treatment involves a filtration system that is either a filter or a sand bed that can be washed and reused.
The second stage of treatment starts with temporary holding of the water to allow the solids to sink to the bottom, and oily matter to float to the top.
The settled and floating material is removed, and the remaining liquid is moved to the next stage of treatment. This stage of treatment removes dissolved and suspended biological matter such as bacteria and potential viruses and the remaining liquid is moved to the next stage of treatment.
In this final stage of treatment, water is treated with chemicals such as chlorine, a yellow-green gas that has a strong oxidising agent, or UV light, and is then filtered prior to being released to the environment. If you live in a municipality, pipes from each house or building flow to a sewer main that runs underneath the street and sidewalks.
This sewer main pipe line is usually around 3 to 5 feet in diameter. These pipes have intersecting vertical pipes which run up from the main to the surface into a building or a manhole cover which allow access to the pipe system for maintenance. The sewer main pipes flow progressively into larger and larger pipes, joining together until the wastewater, known as effluent, reaches the treatment plant.
In order to help gravity do its job, the treatment plant is usually located in a low-lying area by a stream or riverbed. Normally, the lay of the land will not completely cooperate, and gravity cannot do all the work. In these cases, the sewer system will include a pumping station to move the wastewater up over a bump or hill. The sewer lateral is the lowest and widest drain pipe in your home.
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