Create the highest grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe.
POLLUTION- SEWAGE TREATMENT
Happy Sunday evening,
Dan and I are still winding down from our travels to Mexico. So, today the blog is delayed from unpacking and putting things away. Today I’m going to continue blogging on the big picture, the silent killer – POLLUTION. While we were in Mexico for Dan’s treatment, I spoke to our doctor, Dr. Garcia about the issues of our environment.
For I remember ten years ago while I was being treated for cancer his words of wisdom were; you can’t change always the surroundings you live by, but you can change what you do in your home. This has stuck with me for many years and I have blogged about clean living.
A vision is a big picture of what you seek for your life. Your life’s vision defines who you want to be, what you want to be known for and the set of experiences and accomplishments you aim for. Your vision helps define the goals by giving you a framework to evaluate those goals. Your vision becomes your why.
“A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.” – Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Have you ever wondered when you flush the toilet where the water and the waste go? This is a troubling problem that is causing issues in our environment.
Water pollutants may originate from point sources or from dispersed sources. A point-source pollutant is one that reaches water from a single pipeline or channel, such as a sewage discharge or outfall pipe. Dispersed sources are broad, unconfined areas from which pollutants enter a body of water.
Surface runoff from farms, for example, is a dispersed source of pollution, carrying animal wastes, fertilizers, pesticides, and silt into nearby streams.
Urban storm water drainage, which may carry sand and other gritty materials, petroleum residues from automobiles, and road deicing chemicals, is also considered a dispersed source because of the many locations at which it enters local streams or lakes.
Point-source pollutants are easier to control than dispersed-source pollutants, since they flow to a single location where treatment processes can remove them from the water. Such control is not usually possible over pollutants from dispersed sources, which cause a large part of the overall water pollution problem. Dispersed-source water pollution is best reduced by enforcing proper land-use plans and development standards.
General types of water pollutants include pathogenic organisms, oxygen-demanding wastes, plant nutrients, synthetic organic chemicals, inorganic chemicals, micro plastics, sediments, radioactive substances, oil, and heat.
Sewage is the primary source of the first three types. Farms and industrial facilities are also sources of some of them. Sediment from eroded topsoil is considered a pollutant because it can damage aquatic ecosystems, and heat (particularly from power-plant cooling water) and is considered a pollutant because of the adverse effect it has on dissolved oxygen levels and aquatic life in rivers and lakes.
“Do not give up your dream because it is apparently not being realized, because you cannot see it coming true. Cling to your vision with all the tenacity you can muster. Keep it bright; do not let the bread-and-butter side of life cloud your ideal or dim it.” – Orison Swett Marden
There are three types of wastewater, or sewage: domestic sewage, industrial sewage, and storm sewage. Domestic sewage carries used water from houses and apartments; it is also called sanitary sewage. Industrial sewage is used water from manufacturing or chemical processes. Storm sewage, or storm water, is runoff from precipitation that is collected in a system of pipes or open channels.
“I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, then lord among those without dreams and desires.” – Kahlil Gibran
KEEPING A COMMITMENT 🌻
Good day Sunday 🌞INTEGRITY is keeping a commitment even after circumstances have changed.🦋
Domestic sewage is slightly more than 99.9 percent water by weight. The rest, less than 0.1 percent, contains a wide variety of dissolved and suspended impurities.
Although amounting to a very small fraction of the sewage by weight, the nature of these impurities and the large volumes of sewage in which they are carried make disposal of domestic wastewater a significant technical problem.
The principal impurities are putrescible organic materials and plant nutrients, but domestic sewage is also very likely to contain disease-causing microbes. Industrial wastewater usually contains specific and readily identifiable chemical compounds, depending on the nature of the industrial process. Storm sewage carries organic materials, suspended and dissolved solids, and other substances picked up as it travels over the ground.
“Don’t let others tell you what you can’t do. Don't let the limitations of others limit your vision. If you can remove your self-doubt and believe in yourself, you can achieve what you never thought possible.” – Roy T. Bennett
The amount of putrescible organic material in sewage is indicated by the biochemical oxygen demand, or BOD; the more organic material there is in the sewage, the higher the BOD, which is the amount of oxygen required by microorganisms to decompose the organic substances in sewage. It is among the most important parameters for the design and operation of sewage treatment plants. Industrial sewage may have BOD levels many times that of domestic sewage. The BOD of storm sewage is of particular concern when it is mixed with domestic sewage in combined sewerage systems.
Dissolved oxygen is an important water quality factor for lakes and rivers. The higher the concentration of dissolved oxygen, the better the water quality. When sewage enters a lake or stream, decomposition of the organic materials begins.
Oxygen is consumed as microorganisms use it in their metabolism. This can quickly deplete the available oxygen in the water. When the dissolved oxygen levels drop too low, trout and other aquatic species soon perish. In fact, if the oxygen level drops to zero, the water will become septic. Decomposition of organic compounds without oxygen causes the undesirable odors usually associated with septic or putrid conditions.
Another important characteristic of sewage is suspended solids. The volume of sludge produced in a treatment plant is directly related to the total suspended solids present in the sewage. Industrial and storm sewage may contain higher concentrations of suspended solids than domestic sewage. The extent to which a treatment plant removes suspended solids, as well as BOD, determines the efficiency of the treatment process.
Domestic sewage contains compounds of nitrogen and phosphorus, two elements that are basic nutrients essential for the growth of plants. In lakes, excessive amounts of nitrates and phosphates can cause the rapid growth of algae.
Algal blooms, often caused by sewage discharges, accelerate the natural aging of lakes in a process called eutrophication.
Domestic sewage contains many millions of microorganisms per gallon. Most are coliform bacteria from the human intestinal tract, and domestic sewage is also likely to carry other microbes. Coliforms are used as indicators of sewage pollution. A high coliform count usually indicates recent sewage pollution.
A sewerage system, or wastewater collection system, is a network of pipes, pumping stations, and appurtenances that convey sewage from its points of origin to a point of treatment and disposal.
Systems that carry a mixture of both domestic sewage and storm sewage are called combined sewers. Combined sewers typically consist of large-diameter pipes or tunnels, because of the large volumes of storm water that must be carried during wet-weather periods. They are very common in older cities but are no longer designed and built as part of new sewerage facilities.
Because wastewater treatment plants cannot handle large volumes of storm water, sewage must bypass the treatment plants during wet weather and be discharged directly into the receiving water. These combined sewer overflows, containing untreated domestic sewage, cause recurring water pollution problems and are very troublesome sources of pollution.
In some large cities the combined sewer overflow problem has been reduced by diverting the first flush of combined sewage into a large basin or underground tunnel. After temporary storage, it can be treated by settling and disinfection before being discharged into a receiving body of water, or it can be treated in a nearby wastewater treatment plant at a rate that will not overload the facility.
Another method for controlling combined sewage involves the use of swirl concentrates. These direct sewage through cylindrically shaped devices that create a vortex, or whirlpool, effect. The vortex helps concentrate impurities in a much smaller volume of water for treatment.
New wastewater collection facilities are designed as separate systems, carrying either domestic sewage or storm sewage but not both. Storm sewers usually carry surface runoff to a point of disposal in a stream or river. Small detention basins may be built as part of the system, storing storm water temporarily and reducing the magnitude of the peak flow rate. Sanitary sewers, on the other hand, carry domestic wastewater to a sewage treatment plant.
Pre-treated industrial wastewater may be allowed into municipal sanitary sewerage systems, but storm water is excluded.
Storm sewers are usually built with sections of reinforced concrete pipe.
Corrugated metal pipes may be used in some cases. Storm water inlets or catch basins are located at suitable intervals in a street right-of-way or in easements across private property. The pipelines are usually located to allow downhill gravity flow to a nearby stream or to a detention basin. Storm water pumping stations are avoided, if possible, because of the very large pump capacities that would be needed to handle the intermittent flows.
Sometimes the cost of conventional gravity sewers can be prohibitively high because of low population densities or site conditions such as a high-water table or bedrock. Three alternative wastewater collection systems that may be used under these circumstances include small-diameter gravity sewers, pressure sewers, and vacuum sewers.
In small-diameter gravity systems, septic tanks are first used to remove settle-able and floating solids from the wastewater from each house before it flows into a network of collector mains (typically 100 mm, or 4 inches, in diameter); these systems are most suitable for small rural communities. Because they do not carry grease, grit and sewage solids, the pipes can be of smaller diameter and placed at reduced slopes or gradients to minimize trench excavation costs. Pressure sewers are best used in flat areas or where expensive rock excavation would be required.
Grinder pumps discharge wastewater from each home into the main pressure sewer, which can follow the slope of the ground. In a vacuum sewerage system, sewage from one or more buildings flows by gravity into a sump or tank from which it is pulled out by vacuum pumps located at a central vacuum station and then flows into a collection tank. From the vacuum collection tank, the sewage is pumped to a treatment plant.
Pumping stations are built when sewage must be raised from a low point to a point of higher elevation or where the topography prevents downhill gravity flow.
Special non-blogging pumps are available to handle raw sewage. They are installed in structures called lift stations. There are two basic types of lift stations: dry well and wet well. A wet-well installation has only one chamber or tank to receive and hold the sewage until it is pumped out. Specially designed submersible pumps and motors can be located at the bottom of the chamber, completely below the water level. Dry-well installations have two separate chambers, one to receive the wastewater and one to enclose and protect the pumps and controls. The protective dry chamber allows easy access for inspection and maintenance. All sewage lift stations, whether of the wet-well or dry-well type, should include at least two pumps. One pump can operate while the other is removed for repair.
MAY YOUR CUP RUNNTH OVER 🤭❤️☕
May your cup runnth over with joy, love ❤️and laughter🤭oh and really fabulous coffee ☕
Until tomorrow, create the highest grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe. Now that you know how the sewage system works, tomorrow I will be blogging on water treatments.
