Where Does the Used Indoor Water Go?

About half the water delivered to homes and businesses ends up going down the drain. Remember during the previous lesson, your drawing included clean water pipes going into buildings and wastewater pipes going out of buildings. The used water that flows down indoor drains, mostly in kitchens and bathrooms, is called wastewater. Think about what goes down the drain where you live?

Wastewater collection and treatment processes are engineered and built to keep us safe from pathogens in wastewater that could make us sick. Once the wastewater leaves your home's pipes, it goes through the long maze of underground pipes and pumps called the wastewater collection (sewer) system out to the water reclamation facility (WRF). The WRF takes the dirty water and, through a series of processes, will filter, clean, disinfect, test, and then return the cleaned water safely back into the water cycle. 

A wastewater treatment plant is basically a good bug factory!

The wastewater treatment process consists of physical and biological treatment. The first part of the process physically removes solids by means of sedimentation, or separation by gravity. Biological treatment uses microorganisms and is effective at removing both solid and dissolved organic matter.

Wastewater Treatment
Microorganisms are used in aeration basins to metabolize (eat and digest) the organic matter (waste material) and converting them to carbon dioxide, water and energy. 

Biosolids

Microorganisms also metabolize the solid organic matter, before it is dried and then used on crops in Central Oregon. Our biosolids in Bend are "Class A", which means they can be used by the general public.

More information is on it the way. Please check back soon.