What Happens To The Water That Goes Down My Drains?

What Happens To The Water That Goes Down My Drains? A lot of people do not know where the water goes when it is flushed down the drains. It’s interesting to learn where the water goes, how you can help recycle it and how it goes back to the river.

There are various process stages involved with getting wastewater back into a good, clean express, and you simply might be astonished just how much hard work is involved in modifying what putting down your drains.

Flushed Away…

During the first stage of recycling, water which you put down your drains and purged down your toilet is led out from the property into a much larger sewer pipe under your highway. All of these piping are networked together, but some require additional moving to get the waste moving away.

Screening and Filtering…

Clearly, your normal waste water cannot simply be contributed to open water resources since it is, it requires filtering, which is the reason why there are testing plants in position. This helps to remove all kinds of things from your waste water such as things which people should not be putting down their drains, such as face baby wipes and nappies.

Once most of these things are removed, the grit present in the water is also removed using specialised equipment. The solids that can be easily removed from the waste liquid is removed. The bigger solids like tree branches, sticks and plastics which could cause damage to the pumps and pipelines are removed.

The water moves through a screening layer for removing all heavy materials. There is a grit removal section in pre-treatment which allows for a constant velocity of sewage flow for the next treatment section.

Primary Treatment.

The primary treatment involves removal of physical solids from the water by the process of sedimentation. The entire content is held in a huge basin and allowing the physical impurities to settle. A special process removes the floating materials, and the liquid is alone transferred to the secondary treatment.

A saponification process is carried out to remove the oil and grease from the water. The greasy materials come to the surface as froth, and they are skimmed off.

Secondary Treatment…

In secondary treatment, micro-organisms are used to treat the sewage water. They remove the dangerous microbes from the liquid, changing its colour and odour. However, the micro organisms are later removed before getting discharged to the tertiary treatment.

The secondary treatment comprises of activated sludge process and aerobic granular sludge process which has an aeration tank to provide oxygen for bacteria helping to convert organic materials. The main conversion done here is changing ammonia to nitrates and then to nitrogen gas. Sometimes rotating biological contractors are used which are huge in size and holds the organic matter and bacteria while the conversion takes place.

Finally, before going to the tertiary treatment, secondary sedimentation is done which removes almost all suspended and organic matters.

Final Stage…

Before water can be put again into rivers, it needs to go through one final stage; this is yet another settlement reservoir phase. This time the good bacteria are remaining to settle, leaving the clear water. If that is not clean the drinking water to the right level, then additional phases can be added, such as putting the through fine sand, to filter it further.

This involves a high degree of filtration involving lagoons or microfiltrations. Initially, sand filtration is done to eradicate suspended impurities, or sometimes carbon adsorption is done so that all dangerous microbes are removed. The nutrient removal process follows this. This process is critical as the resulting water now contains a large amount of nitrogen, phosphorous, etc. which helps in algal growth leading to eutrophication.

After removing nitrogen and phosphorous, finally, the disinfection process is carried out where the water is treated with UV or ozone, and then the resulting water is discharged to nearby irrigation centres or any other place through pipelines.

Call Clark Drainage Today…

Here at Clark Drainage we know how important it is for you to have your drains flowing properly, that’s why we provide CCTV surveys to establish where a blockage may lie in your system and drain jetting to get rid of any blockages and. Contact us today, and our experts will be glad to help you.