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Down
the Drain or Waste Not, Want Not: Wastewater
Treatment in Virginia
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.
NEXT:
Along the Rails: Train Travel in Virginia
--
September 5, 2005
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