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#1
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Down the drain...
I've been pondering this for awhile and haven't really been able to find an answer...
What happens to all the salt water we dump down the drains??? I live in las vegas and i dont know much about our local water district but i do know its a rather tedious task to convert sea water into drinking water... So how does our local water facilities handle salt water? |
#2
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If you're in an area where raw sewage might be dumped into the water, then I think you need to be more concerned about introducing foreign species. The amount of salt that aquarists put into the sewage system is minuscule compared to the amount peed out by millions of people.
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The Sand People are easily startled, but they will soon be back, and in greater numbers. All statements have been peer reviewed. |
#3
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The saltwater gets treated just at the wastewater treatment plant just like anything else you send down the drain. The amount of saltwater that is dumped down the drain is very small and will have no effect on the treatment process.
HippySmell-In what areas is raw sewage dumped into the water? |
#4
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I know there have been some cases in Florida, and I'm sure there are other cases that I'm unaware of. Sadly, people in the US don't think that things like this still happen, but they do.
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The Sand People are easily startled, but they will soon be back, and in greater numbers. All statements have been peer reviewed. |
#5
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Quote:
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Save the Reef........................... Save the world. -Ken MASLAC member |
#6
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it might not be smart to dump it down the drain if you have a septic.
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#7
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Usually happens several times a year.
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"It is never too late to give up your prejudices" H. D. Thoreau |
#8
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WOW!!! and people are worried about saving the rain forest... |
#9
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There are lots of places that pump most of their sewage into the ocean with nothing more than basically mechanical filtration and some biological filtration. That makes it pretty hard for any macro-life to make it out to the ocean, but a whole lot of microbes make it and the potential for introducing pathogens is real.
There are at least 6 huge outfall pipes in south Florida alone. Hawai'i used to have them too, but they've been working on upgrading their system recently, and I believe they've phased out most, if not all of them. Within the past couple of years though I know of at least two occasions where they had situations like RumLad described.
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Lanikai, kahakai nani, aloha no au ia 'oe. A hui hou kakou. |
#10
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Here in Tennessee it's not uncommon for raw sewage to be dumped into rivers when an overflow situation occurs as well. Fortunately they have done quite a bit of work on the problem lately, especially here in East TN where the problem is worse than it is in the rest of the state.
One thing to remember is "the solution to pollution is dilution" so when raw sewage is dumped at least it's being dumped at peak flows in the waterways. Chris
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"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something" -- Thomas H. Huxley |
#11
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I've been to two of the sewage treatment plants in this area for field trips. They're mostly concerned with removal of nutrients from the water (even though one of them doesn't meet environmental standards) but they have no method for removing salt from the water. The amount of salt is very low, but it's still there. They also have an overflow, and if there's too much rainfall, all the sewage ends up in the Susquehanna River.
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#12
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To somewhat piggyback on another thread in this forum, it is also known here in Chicago that the Lake receives about 200 or so pounds of mercury per year from rainfall (read that as air pollution. coal burning, deisel fumes etc). But yet there is an uproar when a local employer (very large, local employer) wants to keep its current level of mercury discharge while upgrading its plant capacity. The local plants total yearly mercury output? Just less than 2 pounds.
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"It is never too late to give up your prejudices" H. D. Thoreau |
#13
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Almost all sewer systems have some of type of "relief" for times when the flow is more than the pipes can handle. During these times it is true that "raw sewage" may be allowed to flow into streams, rivers, lakes, etc. However, as fishdoc11 stated, these overflows usually happen during heavy rains so this "raw sewage" is highly dilluted. The alternative to this would be to allow the sewage to flow back into people's homes which poses a potentially greater health risk. RumLad while I don't know Chicago's system specifically I believe the deep tunnel you are referring to is part of the TARP project? This project is being done to store these excess flows so that the overflows don't happen. |
#14
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The fact that you can get away with so little in the way of real treatment is why ocean outflows are so much more economical than a modern treatment plant.
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#15
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wouldent the chlorine and other crap in sewer water kill anyhting on its trip to the ocean?
(
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Addicted to the Reef Chris "to many tanks not enough r/o" |
#16
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nice question! Is it better, typically, to send it down the drain or dump it outside?
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send me an e-mail at: boggs32@marshall.edu Thanks! Ricky |
#17
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Lanikai, kahakai nani, aloha no au ia 'oe. A hui hou kakou. |
#18
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Whether diluted or not, you still have millions of gallons of untreated wastewater flowing into Lake Michigan several times a year. And the more people build up the surrounding areas, the more run-off is generated. I personally don't think the tunnel will ever be large enough, or constructed fast enough, to keep up with the growth. The same growth that demands more and more clean water from the very same lake!
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"It is never too late to give up your prejudices" H. D. Thoreau |
#19
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awesome
that other guy is right, the salts from the tank are negligable compared to salts from other sources
depending on the nature of the local POTW (publicly owned treatment works), salts mostly end up in the dewatered treatment plant sludge, the biosolids are then composted and sold to the citizens with green wastes as fertilizer, the treatment plant i work for gives it to the local farms to spread on their fields (lots of nitrogen..), other POTW's take it to the landfill for daily cover salts occur as something called TSS, (total suspended solids), the NPDES permit each POTW has limits the influent/effluent water of the wastewater treatment plant in regards to the amount of metals, TSS, and just about everything else of consequence to the permit, limits on the permit are determined by receiving bodies of water like oceans, streams, lakes and groundwater etc... For example, Vegas pumps some of their wastewater effluent back into the aquifer to recharge the groundwater... so their permit for that water requires the discharge to be as clean or cleaner than the receiving body, ie mg/L TSS, metals and other goodies |
#20
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kreper3,
[welcome] Chris
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"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something" -- Thomas H. Huxley |
#21
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thank you
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