The wastewater infrastructure is essential to our society. It provides us with a way of disposing of the wastewater in an environment-friendly manner, and without it, we would be faced with some severe consequences. However, there are many things that you might not know about this vital resource. Here are seven facts that could help you better understand how your wastewater system works.
What Is The Wastewater Infrastructure?
Wastewater infrastructure is the system that collects and treats wastewater from homes, businesses, industries, and other sources.
It consists of a network of pipes or sewers that move wastewater to nearby plants for treatment.
How You Can Maintain Your Home’s Wastewater System
Maintaining your home’s wastewater system is essential to protect it from problems. That’s why according to Fluid Services, there are several steps that you should take to keep your system running well. They include:
- frequently check for leaks or clogs and fix them if they appear;
- make sure there is always enough water pressure coming into the house
- try not to pour fats, oils, grease down drains
- check appliances like dishwashers carefully before loading anything inside because food particles can stick onto dishes and prevent proper drainage. If you have a garbage disposal, make sure everything goes through properly without any shredding occurring on the blades;
- check the outside of your home to make sure there are no cracks or holes that could allow wastewater from seeping through.
How Does A Wastewater Treatment Plant Work?
The plant works by taking raw sewage and putting it through a series of processes that clean the water, then discharge it into rivers or other waterways.
For wastewater to be treated, it has to go through three phases:
● Phase One:
Wastewater is pumped from homes and businesses into large reservoirs called lift stations, where most of the solids are separated in a settling tank. The clean water then flows by gravity (or on occasion with pumping) to an area treatment plant that filters out any remaining pollutants and meets drinking-water standards for chlorine levels before being discharged into local waterways.
● Phase Two:
At wastewater plants, which can be found near urban centers or at industrial sites along rivers or lakeshores, incoming wastewater undergoes multiple stages of physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove contaminants such as bacteria, heavy metals, and excess nutrients like phosphorus – crucial because too much phosphorus causes algae blooms – that can harm water quality or aquatic life.
● Phase Three:
The treated wastewater, which meets drinking-water standards for chlorine levels and other key pollutants, is sent to a nearby river or stream to be discharged downstream to protect coastal waters from raw sewage.
Where Does The Plant Discharge After Cleaning?
After the wastewater goes through all of the cleaning and purification processes, it will be discharged into a river or ocean.
The wastewater discharged into the ocean is called receiving water. When we release our waste in a river or sea, it causes harm to marine animals and plants living there because of the pollution from this type of hazardous material.
This also pollutes the air when it evaporates back up as rain droplets fall on us too!
Know The Difference Between Sanitary And Stormwater Sewers
These two types of sewers are treated very differently, yet they both play a vital role in the overall health and safety of our city streets, parks, and homes.
Sanitary sewers are the ones you typically see lining our city streets, which carry away waste from your home or business to a treatment plant where it can be processed before being released into local rivers, lakes, or streams. Stormwater drains collect rainwater, snowmelt, and other surface runoff that may come in contact with concrete and roadways on its way downstream to natural waterways like creeks, ponds, and wetlands.
Wastewater Plants Are Huge Contributors To Greenhouse Gas Emissions
When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, there are a lot of different sources. But one major contributor that people don’t often think about is wastewater treatment plants. They release 20 percent more methane than landfills do.
There Are Over 1 Million Miles Of Sewage Pipelines In The US
In the US alone, there are over one million miles of sewage pipelines. This is a staggering number, but it’s worth noting that the pipes vary in size. For example, suppose you live in Philadelphia and have an emergency on the Schuylkill River upstream from your home. In that case, this means that you will have to deal with untreated wastewater during your shower or bath because the river contaminates both surface water and groundwater, which enters into homes via private wells adjacent to waterways.
Many people take for granted the importance of wastewater disposal and how it impacts our lives. While we may not think about it daily, this infrastructure is essential to society and allows us to dispose of wastewater in an environmentally-friendly manner. Explained in this article is everything you ought to know about the system.