Sewage collection and disposal
Encyclopedia
Sewage
Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...
through cities and other inhabited areas to sewage treatment
Sewage treatment
Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...
plants to protect public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
and prevent disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
. Sewage is treated to control water pollution
Water pollution
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies . Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds....
before discharge to surface water
Surface water
Surface water is water collecting on the ground or in a stream, river, lake, wetland, or ocean; it is related to water collecting as groundwater or atmospheric water....
s.
Collection
A sewage system may convey the wastewaterWastewater
Wastewater is any water that has been adversely affected in quality by anthropogenic influence. It comprises liquid waste discharged by domestic residences, commercial properties, industry, and/or agriculture and can encompass a wide range of potential contaminants and concentrations...
by gravity to a sewage treatment plant. Where pipeline excavation is difficult because of rock
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
or there is limited topographic relief (i.e., due to flat terrain), gravity collection systems may not be practical and the sewage must be pumped through a pipeline to the treatment plant. In low-lying communities, wastewater may be conveyed by vacuum
Vacuum sewer
A vacuum sewer system uses the differential pressure between atmospheric pressure and a partial vacuum maintained in the piping network and vacuum station collection vessel. This differential pressure allows a central vacuum station to collect the wastewater of several thousand individual homes,...
. Pipelines range in size from pipes of six inches (150 mm) in diameter to concrete-lined tunnels of up to thirty feet (10 m) in diameter.
Community sewage can also be collected by an effluent sewer
Effluent sewer
Effluent sewer is also known as a STEP system and is a type of pressure sewer.- How it works :Effluent sewer is a wastewater collection system that pumps only the liquid portion of sewage. At each home, a buried tank collects and passively separates solids from the liquid effluent...
system, also known as a STEP system (Septic Tank Effluent Pumping). At each home, a buried collection tank is used to separate solids from the liquid effluent portion. Only the liquid portion is then pumped through small diameter pipe (typically 1.5" to 4") to downstream treatment. Because the wastestream is pressurized, the pipes can be laid just below the ground surface along the land's contour.
Sewage can also be collected by low pressure pump
Pump
A pump is a device used to move fluids, such as liquids, gases or slurries.A pump displaces a volume by physical or mechanical action. Pumps fall into three major groups: direct lift, displacement, and gravity pumps...
s and vacuum systems. A low pressure system uses a small grinder pump
Grinder pump
A grinder pump is a waste management device. Waste from water-using household appliances flows through the home’s pipes into the grinder pump’s holding tank. Once the waste inside the tank reaches a specific level, the pump will turn on, grind the waste into a fine slurry, and pump it to the...
located at each point of connection, typically a house or business. Vacuum sewer systems use differential atmospheric pressure
Atmospheric pressure
Atmospheric pressure is the force per unit area exerted into a surface by the weight of air above that surface in the atmosphere of Earth . In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is closely approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point...
to move the liquid to a central vacuum station. Typically a vacuum sewer station can service approximately 1,200 homes before it becomes more cost-effective to build another station.
Design and analysis of collection systems
Design and sizing of sewage collection systems considers population served, commercial and industrial flows, flow peaking characteristics and wet weather flows. Combined sewer systems are designed to transport both stormwaterStormwater
Stormwater is water that originates during precipitation events. It may also be used to apply to water that originates with snowmelt that enters the stormwater system...
runoff
Surface runoff
Surface runoff is the water flow that occurs when soil is infiltrated to full capacity and excess water from rain, meltwater, or other sources flows over the land. This is a major component of the water cycle. Runoff that occurs on surfaces before reaching a channel is also called a nonpoint source...
and sewage in the same pipe. Besides the projected sewage flow, the size and characteristics of the watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
are the overriding design considerations for combined sewers. Often, combined sewers can not handle the volume of runoff, resulting in combined sewer overflows and causing water pollution problems in nearby water bodies.
Separate sanitary sewer
Sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
systems are designed to transport sewage alone. In communities served by separate sanitary sewers, another pipe system is constructed to convey stormwater runoff directly to surface waters. Most municipal sewer systems constructed today are separate sewer systems.
Although separate sewer systems are intended to transport only sewage, all sewer systems have some degree of inflow and infiltration of surface water and groundwater
Groundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
, which can lead to sanitary sewer overflow
Sanitary sewer overflow
Sanitary sewer overflow is a condition whereby untreated sewage is discharged into the environment prior to reaching treatment facilities thereby escaping wastewater treatment. When caused by rainfall it is also known as wet weather overflow. It is primarily meaningful in developed countries,...
s. Inflow and infiltration is highly affected by antecedent moisture
Antecedent moisture
Antecedent moisture is a term from the fields of Hydrology and sewage collection and disposal that describes the relative wetness or dryness of a watershed or sanitary sewershed. Antecedent moisture conditions change continuously and can have a very significant effect on the flow responses in...
conditions, which also represents an important design consideration in these system.
A sewer bed is a piece of land typically used by a municipality for the dumping of raw sewage. Usually raw sewage was brought by truck or drawn by horses to be dumped, but the practice stopped back in the 1940s.
Historical sewage conveyance and disposal
The historical focus of sewage treatment was on conveyance of raw sewage to a natural body of water, e.g. a riverRiver
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
or ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
, where it would be satisfactorily diluted and dissipated. Early human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
habitations were often built next to water sources. Rivers could double as a crude form of natural sewage disposal.
Ancient systems
The first sanitationSanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
system has been found at the prehistoric Middle East, in south-east of Iran near Zabol In Burnt City (Shahre soukhteh) areas. The first time an inverted siphon system was used, along with glass covered clay pipes, was in the palaces of Crete, Greece. It is still in working condition, after about 3000 years.
Higher population densities
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
required more complex sewer collection and conveyance systems to maintain (somewhat) sanitary conditions in crowded cities. The ancient cities
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
of Harappa
Harappa
Harappa is an archaeological site in Punjab, northeast Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The site takes its name from a modern village located near the former course of the Ravi River. The current village of Harappa is from the ancient site. Although modern Harappa has a train station left from...
and Mohenjo-daro
Mohenjo-daro
Mohenjo-daro is an archeological site situated in what is now the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Built around 2600 BC, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, and one of the world's earliest major urban settlements, existing at the same time as the...
of the Indus Valley civilization
Indus Valley Civilization
The Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that was located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, consisting of what is now mainly modern-day Pakistan and northwest India...
constructed complex networks of brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
-lined sewage drains from around 2600 BC and also had outdoor flush toilet
Toilet
A toilet is a sanitation fixture used primarily for the disposal of human excrement, often found in a small room referred to as a toilet/bathroom/lavatory...
s connected to this network.
The urban areas of the Indus Valley civilization provided public and private baths, sewage was disposed through underground drains built with precisely laid bricks, and a sophisticated water management system with numerous reservoirs was established. In the drainage systems, drains from houses were connected to wider public drains.
Ancient Minoan civilization
Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans...
had stone sewers that were periodically flushed with clean water.
Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
towns and garrisons in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
between 46 BC and 400 AD had complex sewer networks sometimes constructed out of hollowed out Elm
Elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The dozens of species are found in temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ranging southward into Indonesia. Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests...
logs which were shaped so that they butted together with the down-stream pipe providing a socket for the upstream pipe.
A significant development was the construction of a network of sewers to collect waste water, which began from the Indus Valley civilization. In some cities, including Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
(Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
) and Fustat, networked ancient sewer systems continue to function today as collection systems for those cities' modernized sewer systems. Instead of flowing to a river or the sea, the pipes have been re-routed to modern sewer treatment facilities.
16th century
The system then remained with not much progress until the 16th century, where, in England, Sir John Harington invented a device for Queen Elizabeth (his godmother) that released wastes into cesspools.However, many cities had no sewers and relied on nearby rivers or occasional rain
Rain
Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...
to wash away sewage. In some cities, waste water simply ran down the streets, which had stepping stone
Stepping stone
Stepping stone and similar can refer to:* Step-stone bridge, stones placed in a river to allow pedestrians to cross* Stepping stone , a type of computer security measure...
s to keep pedestrians out of the muck, and eventually drained as runoff into the local watershed. This was enough in early cities with few occupants but the growth of cities quickly overpolluted
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
streets and became a constant source of disease. Even as recently as the late 19th century sewerage systems in parts of the highly industrialised United Kingdom were so inadequate that water-borne diseases such as cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
and typhoid were still common. In Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil is a town in Wales, with a population of about 30,000. Although once the largest town in Wales, it is now ranked as the 15th largest urban area in Wales. It also gives its name to a county borough, which has a population of around 55,000. It is located in the historic county of...
, a large town in South Wales
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
, most houses discharged their sewage to individual cess-pits which persistently overflowed causing the pavements to be awash with foul sewage.
Industrial Revolution era
As an outgrowth of the Industrial RevolutionIndustrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, many cities in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
grew in the 19th century, frequently leading to crowding and increasing concerns about public health. As part of a trend of municipal sanitation programs in the late 19th and 20th centuries, many cities constructed extensive sewer systems to help control outbreaks of disease.These developments dramatically reduced mortality in the United States. Approximately one third of the forty percent decline in mortality from 1900-1940 can be explained by such improvements. Initially these systems discharged sewage directly to surface waters without treatment. The first comprehensive sewer system was built in Hamburg, Germany in the mid-19th century. The first such systems in the United States were built in the late 1850s in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
.
As pollution of water bodies became a concern, cities attempted to treat the sewage before discharge. Early techniques involved land application of sewage on agricultural land. In the late 19th century some cities began to add chemical treatment and sedimentation systems to their sewers. In the United States, the first sewage treatment plant using chemical precipitation
Precipitation (chemistry)
Precipitation is the formation of a solid in a solution or inside anothersolid during a chemical reaction or by diffusion in a solid. When the reaction occurs in a liquid, the solid formed is called the precipitate, or when compacted by a centrifuge, a pellet. The liquid remaining above the solid...
was built in Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
in 1890.
See also
- Pumping stationPumping stationPumping stations are facilities including pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure systems, such as the supply of water to canals, the drainage of low-lying land, and the removal of sewage to processing sites.A pumping station...
- InfrastructureInfrastructureInfrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
- Select Society of Sanitary Sludge ShovelersSelect Society of Sanitary Sludge ShovelersThe Select Society of Sanitary Sludge Shovelers is used by water environment associations to honour those who have made a particular contribution to the industry....
- William LindleyWilliam LindleyWilliam Lindley , was a famous English engineer who together with his sons designed water and sewerage systems for over 30 cities across Europe.-Life:...
– pioneering 19th century engineer - John ToddJohn Todd (biologist)John Todd is a biologist working in what is sometimes considered the general field of ecological design, in that his ideas often involve applications that become the basis of alternative technologies. His principal professional interests have included solving problems of food production and...