Caring for its citizens. Hundreds die every year in every Indian town due to sewage pollution

[Guest guest]

 

 

 

 

Diving: A

Journey Inside Milwaukee's

Deep Water Tunnel

Find out how divers clean out the buildup in a sewage

overflow tunnel

By David Biello

 

 

 

 

 

Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District

·

Overview Slide Show:

What Keeps the Sewers of Milwaukee Flowing

·

Overview Go Ahead, Say

It: Shit--There, Now We Can Seriously Discuss Sanitation

·

Overview From Thrones

to Robo-Commodes: The Pitfalls of Inventing a Better Toilet

 

Since 1994, a more than 26-mile- (42-kilometer-) long tunnel has

been keeping Milwaukee's sewage from spilling

into Lake Michigan. This deep water

tunnel—a holding tank on steroids—comprises two legs roughly 300

feet (90 meters) belowground that can hold nearly 500 million gallons (1.9

billion liters) of sewage and storm water during a downpour. And for the last

14 years it has kept 74 billion gallons (280 billion liters) of wastewater out

of Lake Michigan, according to Bill Graffin, a

spokesman for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

That's a good thing, not only for water pollution but also

for the drinking water plants that must pull H20 from the same lake and spend millions in money and energy cleaning it

up. A breakdown in Milwaukee's

clean water system in 1993 caused more than 100 deaths as a result of drinking

water contaminated with cryptosporidium, a microbe which causes diarrhea,

primarily in the young, elderly or infirm.

Slide Show: What Keeps the Sewers of

Milwaukee Flowing

 

The deep water tunnel is just one part of a $3-billion water

pollution initiative that has also upgraded 400 miles (645 kilometers) of sewer

infrastructure in Milwaukee and surrounding communities—and ends with a

project to turn dried sewage sludge into fertilizer. But Milwaukee

has a long history of good sewers: the Jones

Island Water Reclamation Facility

connected to the deep water tunnel was one of the first wastewater treatment

plants built in the U.S.

Milwaukee's sewers still

face challenges, however, from a growing population to climate

change. " Weather patterns have changed, " Graffin says. " Recently,

we've been getting fewer rain events but more intense rain events. "

In fact, even the deep water tunnel can't prevent all

overflow situations, though it has cut them from as many as 60 a year down to

just one or two. " We had an overflow in June of 3.5 billion gallons [13.2

billion liters], " without any health impacts, Graffin notes. " To capture

that we would have needed seven more deep tunnels just for one event. "

And there isn't a sewer in the world that doesn't need

periodic cleaning to keep it functioning reliably—especially in the face

of climate change. So this past August, divers ventured into the tunnel to

clear the path to the pumps that move all that wastewater back up to the surface

and through the treatment plant. " It was more of a preventive measure to make

sure that we didn't have a problem, " says Scott Royer, general manager at

Veolia Water North America's Milwaukee

unit, the private company that manages the area's sewer system. " The whole

tunnel system relies on these pumps to empty it and empty it quickly so we can

bring in more water. It's important to its reliability to go in and clean this

material out. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slide

Show: What Keeps the Sewers of Milwaukee Flowing

Go

Ahead, Say It: Shit--There, Now We Can Seriously Discuss Sanitation

 

 

 

 

From

Thrones to Robo-Commodes: The Pitfalls of Inventing a Better Toilet

 

 

 

 

Oldest to Newest to Oldest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2,573 characters remaining

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RISK FREE

ISSUE

GIVE A

GIFT

CUSTOMER

SERVICE

 

 

 

EARTH3.0

DIGITAL EDITION

EARTH3.0

PRINT EDITION