Where does the sewage from your house go?

Question

where are some potential or real environmental danger spots........is there ways to make sewage disposal safer in the community...

Answer 1

What a great question! I had no idea anyone would ever show an interest in this, and it impacts everyone's health.

The waste leaves the primary depository (sink, toilet, etc.) and heads down sewer lines, then to a treatment plant or a septic system. In very FEW instances, it goes directly to a stream or other location and is not treated. Some countries use special toilets that incinerate the waste and never use a water discharge.

Optimum treatment is a tertiary system where there is potential for the water to be potable once again, aeration is merely a method of using aerobic bugs to eat portions of the waste, please do not drink this water. But treatment will range from settling ponds only, all of the way to tertiary treatment. Most processes involve the continuous removal of solids. Chemicals like chlorine or non-chemical like ultra violet is used for final treatment. If a chemical like chlorine is used, it is neutralized before final discharge.

There are also systems that use an outfall to a "natural" habitat and makes use of native plant life, etc. for FINAL treatment. Where I live, the final treatment is followed with pumping the discharge out into the ocean. This now "clean" water is a pollutant to the sea life, in that it is not salt water and is not being introduced like a freash water stream or river.

I would have to know what type of system is used in your community to be able to tell you if improvements may be made. However, even if they can, improvements cost money and often they cannot be afforded.

Answer 2

Look for floor drains, the small 4 to -8" circular grate(mechanic workshops will have a 1 foot metal plate on the floor with holes in it where water drains down) directly in the concrete floor(usually near the water heater tank or the laundry room or downstairs bathroom(a place where there is water) Also any sinks, tubs, showers or toilets that have not been used in a "coons age. If the drain is plumbed to the system meaning that they work such as a sink...they all have a "P" trap. A "P" trap is nothing more than a drain pipe in the shape of a "P" where water stays put. The water is an effective block of sewer smell while allowing water to drain at the same time. Get a container of any sort - coffee cup(except you will probably need a few cups) and pour water in the floor drains. The water in there does not leak anywhere, but it can evaporate into the room very slowly...thus lowering the level of the water that blocks out the smell from the septic. I found that smell in my house ( after 20 years) and it was worse in the basement I have a bathroom down there which is hardly ever used and the laundry tub is hardly ever used and the floor drain has never been used. Adding a couple of cups of water will refill the "P" trap in all these drains and the smell is blocked from the sewer or septic. The water just goes into the septic just like the plumbing you use regularily. Simple fix is "add water". Airing out takes longer. No plumber needed. No septic tank cleaning either - as it would still give off the same smell after the tank is pumped because you did not fix the problem of blocking it off. The water is the block.

Answer 3

it travels thru large pipes to the sewage plant where it is treated.
Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from sewage. It includes physical, chemical and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants. Its objective is to produce a wastestream (or treated effluent) and a solid waste or sludge also suitable for discharge or reuse back into the environment. This material is often inadvertently contaminated with toxic organic and inorganic compounds.

Typically, sewage treatment involves three stages, called primary, secondary and tertiary treatment. First, the solids are separated from the wastewater stream. Then dissolved biological matter is progressively converted into a solid mass by using indigenous, water-borne bacteria. Finally, the biological solids are neutralized then disposed of or re-used, and the treated water may be disinfected chemically or physically (for example by lagooning and micro-filtration). The final effluent can be discharged into a stream, river, bay, lagoon or wetland, or it can be used for the irrigation of a golf course, greenway or park. If it is sufficiently clean, it can also be used for groundwater recharge.

Answer 4

Typically it flows downhill in slanting sewage pipes. At some point in its travels it may end up in a pit with a pump that forces it uphill toward a treatment plant. It that plant it is screened, settled, clarified to be a solids portion and a liquids portion. The liquids are treated with disinfectants and dumped into flowing streams or the ocean. The solids are dried, pressed, or composted to a minimum volume and are either used for fertilizer or buried in a land fill.

Answer 5

Septic tank or city sewer. Aireation systems suppose to put out water you can drink after treating sewage. Thats what we have.

Answer 6

Into the river, and back into my cup of coffee.
The good news is the water for the coffee is boiled first. I don't drink tap water.

Answer 7

Private septic tank.