Investigating Ethical Qualms of the Modern Toilet
Nina Levison
Initial interest and topic expansion
This paper started as a way to talk about my ethical qualms with the toilet and see if there was a scientific basis to back them up. More than a history or philosophy of how the modern toilet came to be, I wanted to see if there is scientific evidence to back up my idea of toilets and the modern sewage treatment systems as wasteful. In order to understand the wastefulness, or efficiency, of the toilet however, I had to answer the question, “what happens when we flush?” This may not be the most interesting or sexiest information about waste, but it is an important look into a part of the waste stream we contribute to daily, in fact,
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Modern sewage formed in response to the 1858 Great Stink of London. The Great Stink was a product of many factors. The introduction of flush toilets replacing previously popular chamber pots increased water and waste volume into cesspits. Additionally, these cesspits, once only used for excess rainwater collection, began to carry waste from slaughterhouses and factories, contaminating the city before its ultimate departure into the River Thames, which began to overflow with sewage along with its tributaries. All of this combined with an unusually hot summer encouraged bacterial growth, a rancid odor, and contributed to a cholera outbreak. In response, London built thousands of miles of underground pipe and created the modern sewage treatment system [3][4].
Two categories of sewage treatment
Sewage treatment can be broken into two categories - storm sewers and sanitary sewers [5].
1. Storm sewers
Storm sewers drain excess rain and groundwater from manmade infrastructure like roads and parking lots. Sometimes the water may be processed to remove stuff like car oil, but for the most part, they get less treatment than sanitary sewers or sometimes none at all[5].
2. Sanitary sewers
Sanitary sewers are processed to clean up human waste. Although there are many methods of dealing with human waste, the generally accepted method in North America consists of a three-stage sewage treatment system. In this essay I will
Sewage arrives at the WVSA by pumping all the waste water from the combined/ storm sewers and collecting it in the wet-well then transferred to the influent pumps. Another place the sewage can arrive at WVSA is from other places who decided not to upgrade like, Lehman Township, that has the WVSA treat their waste for them instead.
To address this issue, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and NYS DEC have recently increased their attention to stormwater management. Explicitly requiring permits for municipalities in New York State that are located near urbanized areas, and have their storm sewer system separate from their sanitary sewer systems. Unlike municipalities with combined sewer systems, an MS4 discharges untreated stormwater directly into the nearest body of water. This type of system can be detrimental for numerous reasons and has ultimately resulted in the EPA’s creation of a federal regulation known as the Stormwater Phase II. It was published in the Federal Register on December 8, 1999 and has since effected every MS4 community in New York State (US EPA, 2005).
Beginning in the late 1990’s the city realized the importance of stormwater management and initiated the necessary steps to identify and minimalize the adverse effects of inadequate drainage infrastructure. Although the city had adopted stormwater regulations for new development, older developments and roadways in the city were not regulated prior to 1984 and many of those drainage systems
One of the cultural challenges that company is facing is soiled toilet paper scattered or piled all over the plant’s bathroom floors. In Mexico and other Latin American countries, the sewer or wastes pipes leading from the building are usually small in diameter compared with U.S. standards. In
Combined sewage overflows come from almost 50 of these sewer outfalls. 2) dry weather flows: - Toronto needs to assess the problems of dry weather flow and take advantage of the opportunities it provides. In order to sustain future growth, the dry weather flow collection system needs to have sufficient capacity. Moreover, sufficient redundancy will enable Coxwell Sanitary Trunk System to strengthen its security and maintenance. 3) additional concerns: - There are disadvantages that come along with transferring sludges from and to different sewer force mains. Toronto’s infrastructure needs to incorporate a sustainable strategy and routing options for transferring sludges from the Humber Treatment Plant to the Ashbridges Bay Treatment Plant and other plants; and - Chemicals such as ammonia and phosphorus spill into the Don River, which need to be reduced. 4) solutions that integrate with wet and dry weathers: - dual infrastructure for both wet and dry weather can be implemented to not only store and treat wet weather flows, but also add security in dry weather flows. (MMM Group
In Seattle, there are three types of sewer systems: Combined Sewer, Partially Seperated Storn Sewer, and Seperated Strorm Sewer. In these three, the best way of sewer and stormwater managment is the last one to separate storm and sewer. This is because, if the dirty water and stormwater
The issue is that more than water goes down drains. Overflow goes over housetops, parking areas, roads, development destinations, and other different places. Along the way it grabs plastic sacks, microscopic organisms and different contaminants. The rain goes specifically into the ocean through open channels and underground pipes, with out being treated or filtered.
Back in 1596 people were deposing their poop by just throwing it in the street. People were tired of it. There had to be a better way to dispose your poop then just throwing it in the streets. Then someone named John Harrington created the first flush toilet. Along with Alexander Harrington
The city consists of approximately 1,000 miles of piping; the average age of these sewers is about 72 years, with 173 miles of piping being more than 100 years old. According to Construction & Capital Programs Communication Manager, Maureen Barry, the central issue focuses on the fact that “water conservation due to the drought lessens the volumes of wastewater flow that moves organic matter through our system.” The system is heavily reliant on gravity in combination with a certain amount of storm water from local neighborhoods to flush out and drain the waste entering into the system and reduce overall odor from the matter that isn’t flushed into the sewer’s
There are several different technologies used at the Eastern Treatment Plant for treating sewerage until it becomes Class A treated effluent. An overview of the process can be seen in Figure 1 below:
In this research report, a technical comparison is made and analysed between the current and newly emerging storm water treatment technologies. Report indicated the following: (a) soil disturbance increased the TSS and turbidity in the runoff; (b) correlations were observed between TSS and particulate runoff concentrations of chromium, copper, and zinc, indicating that solids removal may reduce total metals concentrations; and (c) The strong necessity to switch for new innovative techniques of treating storm water. The first concern when investigating innovative treatment methods is determining the needed level of storm water control. Specific treatment goals usually specify about 90% reductions in suspended solids concentrations. In most storm waters, this would require the removal of most particulates greater than about 10 μm in diameter, which is about 1% of the 1 mm size to prevent sewerage deposition problems. Numerous manufacturers have developed proprietary devices to treat storm water runoff. These devices have been designed to treat one or more of the common storm water pollutants – solids, metals, oil and grease, nutrients and bacteria. Research has shown that combining new treatment technologies provides the best overall treatment efficiencies.
In the 1850s over 400,000 tonnes of waste and sewage was being discharged into the River Thames each day. By 1858 the stench from the raw sewage around and within the Thames was named the ‘Great Stink’. It was a Civil Engineer named Joseph Bazalgette who proposed a plan of the creation of an underground network of tunnels, to put an end to the polluted river. His engineering feat has been improved and extended vastly but the Victorian Sewers still stand as London’s primary sewer system. The sewers were designed to be a combined system meaning rainwater and waste were transported in the same manner. Bazalgette designed Combined Sewage Overflow (CSO) points along the Thames. The CSO’s discharged the sewage and rainwater into the Thames after substantial rainfall, this prevented flooding the streets and houses. When designing the sewers, population increase was taken into consideration. (16) The underground system and factories were designed to treat and transfer sewage of up to double the population that was present when construction began. However the population of London almost quadrupled from 2.35 Million in 1850 (19) to 8.17 million in 2011(7). This drastic increase meant that the sewers were overloaded. The CSO’s were overflowing with only 2mm of rainfall and on average discharging into the Thames around twice a week. The head of Thames Water Phil stride, said “Currently, 32 million cubic metres of storm sewage overflows from London 's Victorian sewers into
The increase in the number of individuals in the planet has established a boom in technology, and industry, which advances the problems in the economy, and contributes to the degradation of the environment. Evidently, the treatment and collection of the wastewater in urban areas poses a critical problem especially in developing countries. Wastewater is a practice that has been taken on especially in urban areas where the domestic effluent pollutes surface water bodies creating health problems for the public. In another word, any water that has been affected by anthropogenic influence. And Wastewater can produce a group of activity that consists of domestic activity, industrial activity, commercial activity, surface runoff or storm water, and from sewer inflow or infiltration. Wastewater is the most important thing that can help people moving comfortably for example when it is raining. Especially, when vehicles move around the city this Wastewater can reduce the hazards of sliding vehicles at road. Also, wastewater can avoid wastefulness of water and can help the agriculture environment by irrigation. On the top of that, the wastewater will help grow the lands when planet growing that will reflect to the air and will get pure air. And all people can get purified water from waste water by
The scope of this project is in accordance to the function of a Wastewater Treatment Plant and that includes the design which will ensure that the effluent is based on the standards and regulations of the government which can be met with reasonable ease and cost (Qasim, 1985, p. 6). Aside from the construction of the facility, the scope of the project also looks into the different methods as to how the facility can produce quality wastewater which is safe to be disposed to the local waterways. The main priority of the project is to produce an effluent which follows the appropriate discharge requirements given by the authorities.
the treatment of wastewaters released to the environment by industry. A significant effort has been