Last week I got the opportunity to visit one of South Orange County Wastewater Authority treatment plants located in Laguna Niguel, CA. I must say that I knew nothing about how wastewater was managed or treated, so the whole tour to me was very interesting and informative. Plus, the tour was guided by a gentleman nameed Mr. Waters; how cool is that?
This one particular plant is a conventional activated sludge treatment facility with the capability of handing 12 MGD of liquid and an equivalent of 24.6 MGD of solid waste. Mr. Waters walked us through the the basic processes of wastewater treatment. The first step is the preliminary treatment, which involves removing debris, larger matter, and grit. Next, the wastewater flows into the primary sedimentation tanks, where heavier matter settles and floatable matter rises to the top. After the matter is separated, the wastewater is sent to aeration basins where the organic pollutants in the wastewater are broken down by microorganisms into carbon dioxide, water and energy. The remaining microorganisms are then diverted to secondary sedimentation tanks and after sedimentation the secondary effluent moves to the ocean outfalls. A portion of this secondary effluent goes through additional filtering (tertiary treatment) to become "reclaimed" which can be used for irrigation and other industrial processes. All settled solids are pumped to heated digesters where they are
broken down and converted into gas by-product of carbon dioxide, methane, and a more manageable solid matter. The remaining solids are held in detention for a certain time, then they are dewatered and known as biosolids. These biosolids are then shipped to a landfill or used as compost material.
Mr. Waters also, stressed SOCWA's commitment to stay on top of wastewater regulations and technology to ensure that the quality of our wastewater going to the ocean is environmentally sound.
As I said above, the tour was very informative. You can find a detail chart of the processes on SOCWA's website http://www.socwa.com/Programs/Programs.aspx.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Is Your Bottle Floating
Today
I was surfing the net reading articles on pollution when I ran across the
5
Gyres Institute. Their mission is to “conduct
research and communicate about the global impact of plastic pollution in the
world’s oceans and employ strategies to eliminate the accumulation of plastic
pollution in the 5 subtropical gyres”.
To
understand and study the impact of plastic pollution this organization has
actually sailed through the 5 subtropical gyres. They take examples of the ocean’s surface to
quantity the mass, size, color and type of plastic floating inside the
gyres. Marine life is also collected for
analysis.
Through
their expeditions they have determined that: plastic pollution accumulates in
oceanic gyres, plastic pollution dominates marine debris; plastic degrades at
sea; plastic absorbs and releases chemicals, animals eat or get tangled in
plastic pollution.
In
May 2012 they will be doing a research voyage through the North Pacific
ocean
to an area called the “Western Garbage Patch” and they have open crew
space
still available. The cost is $25,000 per
person and all requirements must
be
met in order to be accepted. To learn more about the 5 Gyres
Institute and
this expedition visit their
website at: http://5gyres.org/get_involved/expeditions.
Below is a picture of JUNKraft. This raft traveled over 2,600 miles across the North Pacific
Gyre from California to Hawaii floating on 15,000 plastic bottles.
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