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It’s been a problem for civilized societies since
time began: What to do with the unwanted byproducts of
daily life? The average Virginian, if he is like his fellow
Americans, probably flushes somewhere between 66 and 192
gallons of used water, and everything in it, down various
drains each day, according to the Virginia Department
of Environmental Quality. (See VDEQ
-- Wastewater Technology.)
The agency is tasked with overseeing the many facilities
in the Commonwealth that clean pollutants and bacteria
from these wastewaters before they re-enter the water
cycle. In fact, more than 140 large municipal and industrial
wastewater treatment plants and more than 1,000 minor
treatment plants are regulated through the Virginia Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System program, managed by VDEQ.
Wastewater treatment – that is, removing pollutants
before dumping wastewater back into drinking water sources
– is a relatively young phenomenon. It dates from
the 1940s and 1950s. Prior to that, sanitary engineers
concentrated on the reverse process -- filtering drinking
water before it was piped into homes and businesses.
It is actually the advent of piped water that helped create
the wastewater conundrum. Waterworks were built in most
major cities in the early to mid-19th century. By 1860,
16 of the nation’s largest cities had water supply
systems, according to a 2000 article in The Journal of
Urban Technology (“Urban Wastewater Management
in the United States: Past, Present, Future,”
v. 7, no. 3). Prior to piped water, privies and cesspools
stored waste. It was, in wastewater engineering jargon,
a decentralized system, i.e. individuals were responsible
for managing their household waste. With piped water,
the use of water increased 10-fold and if it was piped
in, it had to be piped out. The cesspools were quickly
overwhelmed.
The first solutions backfired. Cesspools were connected
to primitive open sewers, which often ran down the middle
of streets. Because new-fangled plumbing, such as water
closets, now brought water infested with human waste into
the open sewers, epidemics, such as cholera, resulted.
Piped water and open sewers were a bad mix. (See History
of Sewers 101.)
Engineers fixed the problem by designing closed sewer
systems that used water to carry away waste. Now they
debated where the waste should be deposited. Some thought
it should be returned to agricultural land as fertilizer.
Others argued that “water purifies itself”
and wanted to pipe it back into oceans, lakes and rivers.
The latter school of thought won and by the early 19th
century, much of our waste was being dumped into bodies
of water.
This worked well except for the cities that got their
drinking water downstream from sewage waste discharges.
Outbreaks of typhoid occurred and a new debate ignited.
Public health officials wanted to treat waste before dumping
it; sanitary engineers wanted to discharge raw sewage
and filter water before drinking. The engineers prevailed.
Water was filtered and typhoid diminished.
As industry grew in the 20th century, manufacturers needed
low-cost waste disposal, and sewers fit the bill, since
the public was paying. Toxic waste became mixed with household
waste as it was dumped into bodies of water.
The Hampton Roads Sanitary District owes its existence
to this practice. Oysters were essential to the Hampton
Roads economy and when the Virginia Department of Health
condemned a large oyster producing area in 1925 due to
pollution, residents first became aware of the damage
dumping into the ocean could do. The sanitary district
was formed 15 years later and is actually a subdivision
of the Commonwealth of Virginia, created by a public referendum.
Banner headlines from a local newspaper of the era, urging
the creation of the district, read “Pollution Is
Poison” and “Vote Yes.” (See Hampton
Roads Sanitary District -- History.)
By the 1950s, any body of water that received piped waste
was polluted with too many nutrients from human waste
and toxic waste from industry. That’s when wastewater
management, as we know it today – treating waste
before dumping it into water -- became the practice of
choice.
Over the years, many of the Commonwealth’s wastewater
treatment facilities have become models for the industry,
receiving national accolades for their water cleaning
technology. The Norman M. Cole Jr. Pollution Control Plant
in Fairfax County, the largest advanced wastewater treatment
plant in the state, received the Gold Peak Performance
Award from the Association of Metropolitan Sewage Agencies
in 2004. Three other Virginia wastewater treatment facilities
won 2004 Platinum Peak Performance Awards from another
trade group, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies
(a more palatable name than its sister trade group). The
award recognizes outstanding compliance with pollution
limits. The plants included the Richmond Wastewater Treatment
Plant; the Williamsburg Sewage Treatment Plant, a part
of the Hampton Roads Sanitation District; and the Doswell
Wastewater Treatment Plant in Hanover County.
Despite the Commonwealth’s clean water awards, controversy
remains. Wastewater treatment is a multi-phase process,
moving from preliminary treatment, which screens grit
and other solids (one wag called it “getting read
of dead cats”) through primary, secondary and advanced
treatments that separate solids, oxidize organic materials
and disinfect. However, there is a byproduct of the entire
process, called in the industry, biosolids. Others refer
to it as sludge.
One way to dispose of sludge is to recycle it as fertilizer
on agricultural fields. However, communities where this
has been proposed have been less than happy with the prospect.
One opponent, C.W. Williams, a Louisa County resident,
has made a video on possible harmful effects of biosolids.
“There are 324,000 acres throughout the state permitted
for sludge and we have no idea what on Earth is in this
stuff, “he said in a June 13, 2004 article in the
Lynchburg News & Advance. A spokesman for
a company that handles the spreading of biosolids disagreed.
“Biosolids have undergone intense scientific scrutiny
and received approval for land application. … Media
attention which focuses on sensationalism and which [single]
out those who choose to use this valuable resource …
only serves to inflame residents and polarize neighbors”
("Biosolid
Opposition Grows in Campbell," Lynchburg
News & Advance).
As an 1877 treatise on sanitation in Scribner’s
Monthly expressed it, “Important as it is to
secure the proper arrangement and construction of sewers
and house-drains, it is still more important to provide
for the safe disposition of the sewage” ("Village
Sanitary Work," Scribner's Monthly,
June 1877). So, the age-old dilemma continues.
September 5, 2005
Nice & Curious
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