Modern Wastewater Treatment Essay

There are different ways Americans can dispose of the 200 million tons of garbage they generate each year. In the 1930’s people started to use landfills, as opposed to open dumps, which drew insects and vermin, causing disease. Landfills are made by digging holes in the in the ground and filling it with waste products and then capped. The government safeguards landfills, and each landfill is exclusive to the kind of waste it has. This method is controlled and monitored, as is the method of incineration. Incineration is the burning of solid waste products at a temperature of 850 degrees. There are pros and cons to each method.

As the water and the flocs particles progress through the treatment process, the move into sedimentation basin where the water moves slowly causing the heavy flocs particles to settle to the bottom of the sedimentation of the basin this is called sludge and is piped to drying lagoons in direct filtration the sedimentation step is not included and the floc is only removed by filtration system

Human activities such as the use of fertilizers in yard soil contribute to the accumulation of nutrients. When using fertilizers, the ground can only absorb so much. The use of excess fertilizers on crops allows for nitrogen to vaporize in the atmosphere through a process called volatilization (Olascoaga, 2010). Crop fertilizer also leaches nitrogen into groundwater, which eventually ends up in the ocean. When the ground is at its maximum absorbance, high concentration levels are obtained and carried through the waste system into rivers. Another factor is sewage from the increasing human population. Septic tanks are widely used unless a household is connected to wastewater treatment plants. Septic tanks purify waste by leaching the waste through soil. Storm water runoff is another source of nutrient for algal blooms. Rainfall picks up nutrients from yards and flushes these nutrients into

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) described the general treatment of wastewater and its two basic stages, primary and secondary. In the primary treatment most solids are caught in a screen, then the sewage goes to a grit chamber to settle small pieces of debris at the bottom, then through the sedimentation tank. Afterwards, secondary treatment removes a majority of the organic matter, eventually being chlorinated before reaching an effluent (EPA, 1998).

Identified wastes in the current processes using the seven wastes as a guide to what should be looked for. The question was asked, “Why did this waste occur?” and, “What can be done to prevent it?”.

The Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County have devised a system to provide wastewater management and have implanted ways to recycle a lot of this water. The three treatments are

The United States produces roughly 250 million tons of solid waste, or garbage, on an annual basis. This number equates to 4.4 pounds of solid waste created by every American on a daily basis (Miller, Meindl, & Caradine, 2016). The recycling rate in the U.S. is around 35%, meaning over 165 million tons of waste is placed in the nation’s landfills or incinerated each year (Mozo-Reyes, Jambeck, Reeves, & Johnsen, 2015). Landfilling recyclables contributes to a greater strain on global resources because materials that may have been reused must now be replaced (Miller, et.al. 2016). Landfilling waste also contributes to air pollution through the release of methane (Delkash, Zhou, and Singh, 2016) and poses threats to groundwater near landfills (Talalaj & Biedka, 2016). As the population of the nation (and the world) increases, strategies must be found to reuse resources rather than simply disposing of them.

After the dirty water flows in to the treatment plant it goes through Bar Screens, then Grit Channels, which is followed by Influent Pumping, followed by Primary Settling, then to Oxygenation Tanks which undergoes a Secondary Setting then Effluent Pumping. Afterwards the water is then disposed either in the upper NY Bay or the Newark Bay. If after the Effluent Pumping process the water goes to the Main outfall is directed to the Upper NY Bay, if it instead goes to the Chlorine Contact Tank then it is disposed of in the Newark Bay

Untreated wastewater is dumped into

First, control over the discharge can take place at the point of generation within the plant itself. Second, the polluted water can be sent to water treatment plants before it is released into the surrounding water sources. Third, the waste water can be treated within the plant and recycled again, or treated in the plant and released.

After stirring, a vacuum hose is lowered down into the sludge. Once all waste material has been removed, the tank should be rinsed with water to remove any remaining sludge which allows the crew to visually check the system and verify that its condition. If any holes, cracks, missing baffles or other signs of damage are found, immediate repair is recommended to prevent more serious problems from occurring. Otherwise, the waste material is hauled away to an approved disposal facility.

If you don’t have city sewage you probably have a septic system. A septic system is a system that treats removes and disposes of water. Usually this water is from homes and businesses. Septic systems are responsible for the removal of water waste. If it is working properly it will safely remove filtered water out of harms way and back into the aquifer. If a septic system is not working properly it can be dangerous it may cause the near by water table to overflow causing flooding and water contamination. If this occurs people often must resort to an alternative septic system.

These items add up in septic tank, and as the sludge accumulates, it takes away from the full capacity of the tank. Ideally, the bacteria and treatments will help to break down the components that are causing the sludge, but as the larger, heavier pieces sink to the bottom more quickly, the bacteria doesn’t have the time to do its

Some universities use industrial digesters to dispose of cadavers used for research and mortuary education. The machine, looks like an enormous pressure cooker, mixes about 70 gallons of water with a small amount of lye. When the five to eight hour cycle is complete: that's three hours to destroy the body, plus a few more to heat and cool the solution then the liquefied remains are safe to pour down the drain. In which perforated basket catches the solids that survive the process, plus implanted medical devices and "bone shadows"—calcium phosphate that makes up about 70 percent of the mass of bones and teeth. The bony bits can be crushed into a fine white

break down the glue-like material bonding the wood fibers. Chemicals used in the digester are reclaimed and used in