Follow the Flush - How a Waste Treatment Plant Works

Here's another re-release while we work on our next project. This video covers what happens to all the stuff we flush down our drains, and how we make the water safe to release back into rivers. If the New York sanitary district can offer tours for Valentines Day which sell out in minutes, we thought we'd give you something more lasting. After all, everyone poops!

[@humbleevidenceaccepter7712]

We take so much of our modern life for granted, with nary a thought of how it works. Thanks for showing a part of it.

[@mpetersen6]

@@LegendLength I used to work for a company that built equipment for wastewater plants. The owner said it smells like money.

[@mikeburch2998]

The builders and maintainers of our infrastructure are greatly misunderstood and highly under appreciated. I love them all and thank you for everything! I appreciate you every single day.

[@SWOBIZ]

Most people don't appreciate the extraordinary ingenuity of the critical infrastructure that supports our lives - distribution of electricity, water, natural gas, telecommunications, reservoirs, etc. God Bless the scientists, architects and engineers who design, build, and operate these life-sustaining processes.

[@kaylawuvscookies]

And God Damn those politicians doing their best to hamstring this infrastructure in the name of profit.

[@haliax8149]

@@kaylawuvscookies Sorry, but that's not how it works. Profit incentive is what makes these things possible at all. Besides, you're the one who has to demonstrate why the shit you just spewed is true.

On that topic, let me recommend the KZbin channel "Practical Engineering": kzbin.infoplaylists

[@Grnademaster]

Yep. Then some jerk-off bureaucrat thinks they know more than the operators and the engineers to make the process "better fit" his/her political agenda.

[@RayeBay1]

No "five second rule" in this place! Keep up the great work, Doctor.

[@phrogman4654]

Plumbers protecting the health of the nation 🐸

[@mikeburch2998]

Plumbers are awesome! And they are so valuable to our way of life. My point.... be fucking nice and polite to plumbers.

[@no_more_free_nicks]

Exactly!

[@thunderdrumandbass]

I'm Loving the Series keep it up prof!

[@MasthaX]

This whole microbe fascination feels like making a good starter for a sour dough bread.

[@TileBitan]

lol

[@danmarshall5895]

I did not expect that to be so interesting.

[@daleheltzer1318]

This city slicker is *very impressed! Wonderful stuff!

[@ionutale1950]

Just in case you are looking for inspiration for new videos, I suggest physics. You have a way of explaining, that makes things very simple. Thank you for your videos

[@no_more_free_nicks]

Nice idea with the "carpet" filter, greetings from Kraków Poland.

[@TileBitan]

10:46 "No.." savage

[@christopherbost1573]

As a commercial diver, I often have to deal with broken valves and gates at waste water facilities. Stinky but fun and challenging.

[@ronnieperez8519]

I started watching your videos starting with what happened with Chernobyl. This is awesome that you went to a treatment plant. I'm barely starting out as an OIT at my local wastewater treatment plant but I'm really proud of what I do.

[@josephlopez4871]

Love this guy. Please continue making more videos.

[@funchable212]

Rick seems like a chill guy

[@xEugene123x]

This is the best channel.

[@optimisticfuture6808]

These kids don’t realize it but there is tons of money in this. My company made millions working with WWTP’s

[@johanponken]

1:06 For us European followers (a bit rounded): 50 m³/minute, 75 thousand m³/day, 25 million m³/year. Flushing a toilet 20 L, shower 75 L. Total usage 380-570 L/d/person.

[@jmonsted]

Tangential: Thank you, Rotary clubs everywhere, for running the youth exchange program. I had a great year in Gettysburg, PA when i was a kid.

[@Nls007]

This was fantastic - very detailed. Well done professor!

[@rogeronslow1498]

I found that absolutely fascinating. An excellent tour.

[@123ostemad]

wonderful overview, with this editing

[@varximus]

No idea how i found this channel, im really happy that i did. Always intresting, thank you for the great content!

[@picanexus]

Thank you to both of you for a great explanation!

[@melkgn]

Excellent video Prof! Thanks as always! Would like to see info on “Deep-Tunnel” too!

[@erlinglorentsen4262]

Excellent video about sewage treatment. Interesting to note that all inorganic dissolvable waste passes through untreated.

[@09666slayer]

Loved the video and channel.

[@0MoTheG]

I would like to hear a discussion of aerobic vs anaerobic treatment.

[@gaussmanv2]

I love your videos. I still cant get over the fact that you sound like al franken.

[@guysimpson9420]

Informative, well explained and not too much detail

[@lightdark00]

There is a lagoon next to our small sewage treatment plant and it overflows at times, of course when raining too. I wish I knew how they used it.

[@felixthefoxMEXICO]

.... how the hell does this have so few views? LEGEND

[@marcteenhc9793]

25:40 EnergyProf making mental note: ¨remember this name, never swim in this river again¨. hahaha

[@xamomax]

Unsung heroes!

[@garymartin9777]

Now this is a dirty job. I remember Mike Rowe visited a sanitation plant and had to wear a breather mask at one point to prevent suffocation by hydrogen sulfide. Thank you sanitation workers !

[@tommartens3731]

I have a way to reclaim the effluent waste water from the treatment plant. You could actually sell it as bottled water to pay for the filtering and have profit left over. If you could get me in contact with the plant manager, we can start testing.

[@MrGigaHurtz]

I feel like I'm watching an episode of Blind Date Nerd Edition. LOL. J/K love the videos

[@Omar-xo7pm]

reminds me of Norm Abram, the old host of This Old House

[@felixthefoxMEXICO]

that nitrifying tower would be better if it was operated by a bell-siphon, like an ebb and flow bioreactor

[@mikeburch2998]

Don't take any of this for granted. If it stops the shit will start to hit the fan.

[@alnis111]

Very nice video. I wanted to ask the professor. What does he think about biochar? How could that be a way to capture carbon?

[@markiangooley]

I haven’t visited the place myself, but I did live in Champaign and Urbana when I was a grad student, so...

[@bobthebomb6498]

My first real job was in the labs on a sewage treatment plant. All this time later I discover that I had pictured the sed tanks and the ASPs in the wrong order!

[@klausgartenstiel4586]

might have been a cool idea to fill up the room with sewage 26 times during this video! on second thought, ... p.s.: this was not a waste of my time. really good stuff!

[@bellefrontes1467]

Hello, great video thx! Could you please make video about HB11 Energy dual chirped pulse amplification laser driven proton-boron fusion? Thank you.

[@MeaHeaR]

Lotsa Wimmens there working on the plant mechanical und servicing the machinés butt was hiddéń

[@Phil-D83]

Should go to Singapore and look at their new water or nu water treatment that turns it back to potable water

[@lightdark00]

I really want to know what happens in accident or mass release events. Like when a immense amount of salt water enters the sewage system enough to destabilize the flora that eat the poop. Also for my local waste treatment, they release deoxygenated water killing all the fish in the creek sometimes. Just why are they having an oxygenation problem in the effluent? I’m thinking they don’t get it as clean as here, it’s a pretty small treatment area.

[@user-nx8tk1pp5o]

SOL, no pun intended...........

[@Cessna_182]

I managed and have since retired from a small SBR (sequential Batch Reactor) treatment plant. Did I miss something? Where was the all important disinfection portion of the process usually after filtration? It's done by some form of chlorine/de chlore or ultraviolet process. Did this plant not have disinfection as part of the process? I would think your NPDES permit would require this step.

[@johanponken]

My guess is that would be necessary only if you're producing potable water. Here they're putting it into a stream.

[@Cessna_182]

johanponken No, the plant I managed discharges into a stream and our permit required us to be below a certain count of bacteria (fecal coliform) which we achieved by UV disinfection. I doubt you will ever see wastewater effluent being used as potable drinking water in the US. Many states are allowing water reuse for public irrigation (class A) but it has to be even a lower bacteria count and monitored very closely.

[@Feelthefx]

How do the bugs survive all the bleach and other antibacterial cleaners dumped down the drain?

[@rickmanner6660]

When mixed with all of the other wastes people flush, bleach and anti-bacterial substances are so diluted that they do not reduce the viability of the microbes.

[@simplic1000]

Would there be somebody trying to track down the coupling between the storm sewer and sanitary sewer?

[@kurtkho96]

Anyone remember that x-files episode with the slug monster?

[@dewiz9596]

All you really need to know: Smell goes up, shit goes down, never lick your fingers. . .

[@jamesmterrell]

Thanks for the story. Why is the exit water foaming?

[@rickmanner6660]

Thanks for asking. Various organic substances that are naturally occurring make foam more stable. I've seen foam downstream of dams in the fall. I have assumed this was associated with leaf degradation as the river was often colored with tannins. At UCSD, the foam dissipates a short distance downstream. It has never been a compliance issue. It seems to be associated with the nitrifying towers. There is no foam upstream of them and when they are taken off-line for maintenance, the foam disappears for those days.

[@matthewconnor5483]

Is it windy enough there to use a windmill to run a compressor to provide some/all the air for the bacteria? Also would solar over the facility be a cost effective way to help reduce power requirements? Could you produce bio gas and use that to run onsite generator to provide power? Thinking about it both from a financial standpoint and a redundancy stand point so that the facility could keep running if it lost grid power.

[@connorrivers798]

Methane production is typically created through anaerobic fermentation. They purposely cause the opposite of this, aerobic fermentation to occur. The gaseous by products would not be suitable for combustion I believe.

[@matthewconnor5483]

@@connorrivers798 They had all the "stuff" they filtered out in the first phase they were just tossing into land fills. Seems like there's something you could do with that material like turning it into a bio fuel to help run the treatment plant if it was cost effective to do so.

[@connorrivers798]

@@matthewconnor5483 A lot of landfills capture methane to be used to produce electricity. The amount of electricity these plants use is massive In comparison to what they could offset with renewables. Im sure they're is research into using wind turbines to pump air, but many existing plants would not have the funds nor capability to be retrofitted.

[@connorrivers798]

@@matthewconnor5483 Biofuel for vehicles would require alcoholic fermentation or whatever the diesel process is. There would not be enough sugar or fats present and would likely result in energy lost. The waste simply doesnt have enough possible energy for it to make sense.

[@mpetersen6]

@@connorrivers798 Our local treatment plant does capture methane to generate power on site. They typically run right around the power they need. Sometimes they have to by power. Sometimes they sell it. We're processing close to the same amount of water by population compared to this facility

[@probablynotmyname8521]

When i flush the toilet im relieved “it” has gone.

[@SafeAndEffectiveTheySaid]

I'm going to think twice before flushing again

[@recklessroges]

No anaerobic stage to produce and collect methane, (to burn and create electricity to {reduce the costs of} run{ing} the pumps?)

[@AltereggoLol1]

This is incredible, but it all seems tremendously expensive and energy-hungry. I wonder if there's a less capital-intensive alternative that would get you "good enough" results...

[@jamesbrown99991]

They could fit solar panels over all the pools to provide power and heat insulation, which would be a cheap way to reduce power needs by 25%. Some plants also have an anaerobic section that produces methane for power and heating. The latter is more expensive than solar, but provides power the whole day.

[@AltereggoLol1]

@The Irish Italian Would it be possible to scale up a septic field system, installed under some greenfield redevelopment?

[@myerax]

It's a shitty job, but someone has to do it!

[@deth3021]

12000 gallons x 12 x 60 = 4 320 000 gallons in the plant at any one time....

[@tyronedlisle4412]

5 Gallons to flush a toilet! What? In Australia the average is 1.1 gallons with some going as low as 0.52 gallons

[@tyronedlisle4412]

@Joe Average unlikely he meant Litres as the US don't use that as a standard measurement. Maybe 5 gallons is just the standard that facility uses as a means for predicting flow.

[@lightdark00]

I use a bucket of already used water to flush. So yeah, sometimes it takes almost the whole five gallons to manage to get some of those huge logs down. I aim to produce dirtier water then everyone else.

[@electrolytics]

No they aren't 5 gallons. They're right around 1 gallon give or take. I bought a new one 12 years and it was a 1.1 gallon flush.

[@steelwarrior105]

Im just thinking 20 mil a day, and then thinking a nuclear main feed water pump at 27 mil a minute wow Edit: million gallons not mil

[@nicktohzyu]

audio loudness is not balanced across different parts of the video, please normalize the separate clips, and possible use dynamic compression

[@elonmask50]

5 gallons to flush a shitter... that’s some bullshit right there.. try 5 litres

[@rickmanner6660]

Actually, 5 gallons (19 liters) was the standard volume of water used per flush for toilets in the US for a very long time. Since toilets don't really wear out, that is still what is in most homes. You are correct that low flush toilets, which are currently being sold, do manage to only use 1.5 gallons, or about 5-liters, or less.

[@Gene_the_OG_Raver]

Perhaps they should see this video in India (dot not feather)

[@electrolytics]

Another great video. (I didn't like the Global Warming reference in the title though....)

[@blairschutte4972]

Sorry you got offended

[@gregrishel4283]

Leave it to an engineer to make a KZbin video about a subject that should have been left to a Google search..........SEE ?

[@therescueofthebride1134]

You lost me before the first word was spoken. "Global Warming"