Cities and Their Vital Systems Infrastructure Past, Present, and Future (1988) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
13 The Urban Wastewater Infrastructure
13 The Urban Wastewater Infrastructure
Pages 278-293
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 278... ...
The wastewater treatment infrastructure is not intended, and should not be depended on, to produce an effluent clean enough to keep a pristine receiving stream unchanged in purity and of drinking water quality. The main defense of the quality of drinking water is the drinking water treatment plant, not the wastewater treatment infrastructure.
|
From page 279... ...
The responsibilities of water pollution control authorities include developing more effective and reliable planning techniques for projecting system growth and modification, resolving current uncertainties in setting water quality standards for water bodies receiving wastewater discharges, solving He troublesome problem of Heating wastewaters of industries using the public sewerage system, coming to grips effectively with the problems of combined sewer overflows and nonpoint runoff, finding acceptable ways for permanent disposal of sludge, and establishing an adequate and equitable funding base for operating, maintaining, and upgrading the wastewater disposal system. To place these tasks in perspective, the following sections of this chapter will describe the evolution and outstanding problems of the system's major components.
|
From page 280... ...
From a cost-benefit point of view, the use of a combined sewer rather than separate sewers seemed to be obviously advantageous, and it soon became standard practice in the cities of Europe and the United States. The sizing of combined sewers was based on accepted assumptions about the extent of area to be served, population density, per capita wastewater .
|
From page 281... ...
Unless this shortcoming of our municipal wastewater infrastructure is corrected, the benefits we expect to result from capital investment in wastewater treatment plants will not be fully realized. Even if treatment plant effluents were given the quality of distilled water, the receiving water bodies would still be polluted at times by the discharges from combined sewer overflows.
|
From page 282... ...
This approach was generally rejected except in special situations because of the difficulties and costs of land acquisition at overflow locations, problems in controlling settleable solids, and the enormous cost of operating and maintaining storage chambers, pumping equipment, and chlorinators at what might well be a hundred or more locations in the city. A unique solution to the combined sewer overflow and storm runoff is seen in Chicago's Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP)
|
From page 283... ...
Although the focus here is on the collection of urban wastewaters, the impact of nonurban, nonpoint sources of pollution, such as from rural and agricultural lands, cannot be ignored. Such sources, particularly the runoff from agricultural land, may place a heavy burden on the receiving water body and at times reduce markedly the benefits of urban wastewater management.
|
From page 284... ...
This condition stems in the main from the nature of the federal program of grants to municipalities for the construction of wastewater treatment plants. Provision for such an incentive was contained in the original 1948 enactment of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, but the Federal Water Pollution Control Grant Program was not adequately funded until passage of the 1966 amendments.
|
From page 285... ...
In that year the U.S. Public Health Service, which was then the agency responsible for conducting the federal water pollution control program, undertook an examination of a broad span of physical and chemical principles that seemed to offer promise in solids separation.
|
From page 286... ...
Water Quality Standards The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (33 U.S.C.
|
From page 287... ...
How is such knowledge to be translated into water quality standards and limits or treatment plant effluent? Such knowledge is essential to municipal acceptance and control of industrial wastewater discharges and to the design and management of the wastewater treatment plant.
|
From page 288... ...
The stream's capacity to assimilate dissolved oxygen-demanding substances is, for all practical purposes, not now available to wastewater dischargers. Pretreatment of Industrial Wastewaters The occurrence of significant concentrations of heavy metals and nonbiodegradable, possibly toxic, organic substances in wastewaters reaching the treatment plant presents problems few biological treatment plants are designed to handle.
|
From page 289... ...
Although control of such pollution is absolutely essential to the success of the national program for water pollution control, pollution from these sources continues to be a burden to treatment plants and a potential hazard in water bodies. Perhaps it is unrealistic to expect small industrial plants connected to the urban sewer to provide effective control of their wastewaters as required by the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
|
From page 290... ...
The development of innovative methods for permanent and acceptable sludge disposal for medium-sized and large cities remains a high-priority need in the wastewater infrastructure of tomorrow. COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING The importance of planning in the nationwide program of water pollution control was recognized in the initial federal legislation, which stated the "Surgeon General (of the U.S.
|
From page 291... ...
CONCLUSION This chapter focuses on physical structures, policies, and practices that represent weaknesses in many urban wastewater management systems. Wastewater discharges that are still poorly controlled include overflows from combined sewers, storm-water runoff, and contributions from other nonpoint sources.
|
From page 292... ...
:231-251. Journal of the Water Pollution Control Federation.
|
From page 293... ...
1948. Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.