How New York City's Sewage and Garbage is Treated
You ever wonder where the stuff you flush down the toilet goes? Or where the water goes after you brush your teeth? Or what's under those manholes that has sewage written on it? What happens when you throw wasted in the garbage? You probably don't but all of the content that is discarded throughout the day gets sent to a sewage plant through the pluming system that is connected to your house. There are sewage plants located throughout New York City. One of these plants that I visited is located under Riverbank State Park. The question of the our that I plan on answering is "How is New York City's sewage and garbage treated?"
What is sewage you ask, the dictionaries defines sewage as; the waste matter from domestic, commercial, and industrial establishment carried off in sewers. When waste matter enters water, the resulting product is called sewage or wastewater. Garbage is defined as; animal or household refuse Sewage is stored in sewers. Then treated or in a sense recycled. Raw sewage includes waterborne waste from sinks, toilets, and industrial processes. Treatment of the sewage is required before it can be safely buried, used, or released back into local water systems. In a treatment plant, the waste is passed through a series of screens, chambers, and chemical processes to reduce its bulk and toxicity. The three general phases of treatment are primary, secondary, and tertiary. During primary treatment, a large percentage of the suspended solids and inorganic material is removed from the sewage. The focus of secondary treatment is reducing organic material by accelerating natural biological processes. Tertiary treatment is necessary when the water will be reused; 99 percent of solids are removed and various chemical processes are used to ensure the water is as free from impurity as possible.
Problems with sewage and garbage management as been in existence for as early as the 1970's as a result of the general concern expressed by people that worried about the increasing pollution in the human environment. But it even goes further then that. Ancient people have been finding ways of resolving sanitation. An ancient sewer system was found in the cities of Crete and Assyrian.
In this image, a sewage worker is seen cleaning the drainage system, with his bear hands, without the use of either any equipment’s or protection. On the first glace, the image depicts the idea of health risk, because the man is exposed to such contaminants, which for him is work. He is looking up from a dirty drain, covered in filth, which shows that he is clearly used as the subject of this image, whom we are engaged to more as he is making eye contact with its viewers. This picture only includes one person into the frame, as the other man’s face isn’t available to see in this picture, which is man that is holding the bucket. Holding a bucket either emphasise the idea that he is helping the sewage worker, either to get the dirt out or to put the dirt in the drainage system.
The study also noted that the problems of water supply and wastewater disposal are inextricably linked. Providing public water system service to self-supplied households without sewer connections greatly increases domestic
Before the 19th Century, sewage disposal was virtually unknown until the first American cities were built around the 1700’s. Human waste was originally disposed of in the woods, but some wealthy Virginians built large houses and used chamber pots to "do their business" indoors, and the contents would be thrown into the back yard. Later, as towns developed, waste was tossed into the streets to decompose or be washed away in the rainstorms (Virginia Places, 2010). Privies or outhouses were also built in back yards and were commonly used to dispose of waste. Toilets, also known as “water closets,” were put into homes in the mid 19th Century in the United States. The water closet had indoor plumbing where piping was run through the roof, and a gravity ...
Don Webb is a local farmer. He stated that the pig waste is collected in warehouses and then dumped into a pool that is big enough to accumulate all of the waste in a small city. That is not the worst part. What is done with the waste is even more disturbing.
Stephenson, R., & Blackburn, J. J. (1998). The Industrial Wastewater Systems Handbook. New York: Lewis Publishers.
our pipelines and sewers where it goes to a treatment plant to be treated, but
In the USA, most wastewater utilities collect wastewater through a collection system that is independent of runoff collection networks. Combined sewer systems that are common in Europe are seen less frequently in the USA. Thus, properly designed, operated and maintained sanitary sewer systems are meant to collect and transport all of the sewage that flows into them to a publicly owned treatment works. However, occasional unintentional discharges of raw sewage from municipal sanitary sewers occur in almost every system. A sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) is defined as discharge from a sanitary sewer system at any point upstream of a sewage treatment plant. Thus, an SSO is any release of untreated sewage into basements, out of manholes, onto city streets and playgrounds, and into streams, before it can reach a treatment facility. Health risks occur from direct and indirect exposure to the SSO.
Solid waste pickup services will exist, preventing litter and garbage accumulations. Large fines will be issued if improper garbage and recycling activities are noticed and reported. Almost everything will be recyclable and taken to nearby cities to their recycling plants. Garbage will also be sent out to a nearby dump.
Phase one in process of waste water treatment begins in the home, local businesses and community. Waste water from these buildings and surrounding areas travel through a pipe, or sewer which is sloped downward, and with the assistance of gravity, travels toward the waste water treatment plant. However, in larger communities or communities with unevenly leveled terrain, waste water cannot keep getting deeper to rely on gravity to transport the waste water and must pumped up by the assistance of a lift station so it may continue to travel to the water treatment plant. Once the waste water arrives at the waste water treatment plant, the first step is the removal of large debris such as diapers, underwear or other non-biological...
Domestic households and industrial and agricultural practices often produce wastewater that can cause rivers and lakes to become polluted. This is typically called sewage and wastewater pollution. Sewage is a term for wastewater that usually contains feces, urine, and laundry waste. With there being billions of people on earth, treating sewage is a big priority. Untreated sewage can contam...
Wastewater is the combination of water-carried or liquid wastes starting in the sanitary conveniences of dwellings, industrial or commercial facilities. In addition to this, surface water, groundwater and storm water may also be present. It is any water that has been badly affected in quality by anthropogenic influence. It contains waste from residential, industrial and commercial processes. Municipal water contains industrial wastewater, sewage and gray water. Gray water is the water from sinks and showers. Large industries also produce wastewater.
Traditional methods of waste disposal have proven to be ineffective and have caused harmful effects on the environment. The most popular and inexpensive way to get rid of garbage is burial, but burying your problems does not necessarily mean getting rid of them. Landfill sites pose as severe ecological threats as these mass garbage dump yards overflow with trash and frequently contaminate our air, soil and water with hazardous wastes. About 400 million tons of hazardous wastes are generated each year1. A large-scale release of these materials can cause thousands of deaths and may poison the environment for many years. For example many industrial companies around the world cannot afford to enforce the strict pollution regulations set by many developed countries. This usually forces these types of companies to move to developing countries where pollution regulations are very lenient. These developing countries knowingly accept environmentally hazardous companies usually because they are in desperate need of employment. The harmful effects of these companies were clearly illustrated in the 1960s and 1970s when residents living near Minamata Bay, Japan, developed nervous disorders, tremors, and paralysis in a mysterious epidemic. The root was later found to be a local industry that had released mercury, a highly toxic element, into Minamata Bay. The disaster had claimed the lives of 400 people1. Since 1970 you can bet that a lot more than 400 people have died as a result of waste disposal. If the type of waste disposal were cheaper and effective we wouldn’t have to deal with waste problems, which still plague mankind today.
...or lakes (Weber 2). When people just dump waste products instead of recycling, it is a misuse of the soil and can contribute to serious health conditions in animals, plants and humans.
A toilet is a plumbing fixture primarily intended for the disposal of human excreta: urine and fecal matter. Additionally
New York has three common methods of getting rid of our waste. The three methods mention below some of the major ways that New York sanitation use to get rid of the garbage generated by households, corporations, hospitals and many other organizations.