MetaFilter posts tagged with sewage

The Scoop on Sewage

burnfirewalls — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:56:10 -0800

Crap Happens. "Three hundred million Americans head to the restroom multiple times a day. The amount of sludge produced staggers the mind—7 million dry tons per year and counting. And it’s not even just crap—it contains residues from everything else we put down the drain, from the detergent in your dishwasher to the chemicals used at the industrial plant down the street."

Insert your favorite euphemism

aliceinreality — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:26:00 -0800

Rose George wants you to start talking about waste. And no, she isn't concerned with your recycling habits, your fluorescent light bulbs, or the packaging on your electronics. She's concerned with your, ahem, human waste. Ms. George has written a book on the way both first and third world societies deal with sewage, and now Freakonomics is talking with her about it.

"the first person in America to huff his own shit"

TheOnlyCoolTim — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:49:37 -0800

The lengths some people will go to get high. Jenkem or jekem is a drug made from raw human sewage, apparently most prevalent in Africa. (Mildly NSFW.)

holiday sewage

thirteenkiller — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 13:11:47 -0800

After the holiday sweeties we ponder the age-old question: Can fish smell snickerdoodles?

Nine out of ten transgendered carp prefer Prozac to Zoloft

scblackman — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 06:41:16 -0800

The Ty-D-Bol Man looks pretty mellow today. When I was younger, my father - a pediatrician - would routinely clean out the medicine cabinet of old cold medicines, antibiotics, high potency barbiturates, illegal diet pills and other nostrums. Rather than throw them into the garbage "where someone might get their hands on them" he would flush them down the toilet (just like the poison control people recommend). Apparently in doing so he was making sure that everybody got them. Think the quantities are too small to make a difference? Not so, say Canadian fish, who seem capable of getting confused by the residue from birth control pills and changing gender. Don't worry too much about them, though. They're all on Prozac, so they're OK with it. [NB: see comments for .pdf version of first link]

Waikiki Stinks

Surfurrus — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 02:19:15 -0800

Waikiki Stinks -- Millions of gallons of raw sewage are flowing into the ocean at the edge of Waikiki Beach. Sewage overflow is becoming a common part of Hawai'i winters. This annual sewage and rain runoff has raised serious concerns about health, reef devastation, and shark attacks. Surfers are pissed. The business community, meanwhile, is euphoric over the raging construction boom that is changing the Honolulu skyline, and lining pockets. Although the sewage/runoff has caused the state to be heavily fined by the Feds, there is no buzz about how this same island infrastructure will support the increased flushing of all the new high rises being built.

Pee and save water

dov3 — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 14:56:51 -0800

Urinate and save water at the same time. Water-free urinals in California. Is it good not to flush?

Suck it down

Smedleyman — Wed, 18 May 2005 21:44:51 -0800

Two great tastes that taste great together. Are you a scat fan? Well, Congress will soon vote on a bipartisan measure that would block the EPA from allowing sewage blending. Scientists & environmentalists gave BushCo some flak on this, but notice how bipartisan the bill is: it's sponsored by Bart Stupak (D-MI) as well as Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) The whitehouse site yielded inconclusive results (searched for sewage blending) This issue first caught my attention on another site (rhymes with 'bark') and I discovered it matters, at least to me, because people crap in my drinking water all the time and apparently the municipal waste treatment systems aren't handling it.

The Shiznet

boost ventilator — Sun, 28 Dec 2003 15:58:07 -0800

The Poop on Poop [an A to Z courtesy of Vice]

Listen, it's the sound of a child's innocence being molested.

XQUZYPHYR — Fri, 06 Jun 2003 09:28:16 -0800

Grinding Nemo. The JWC company, maker of sewage equipment, wishes to issue a press release informing small children everywhere that contrary to scenes in the hit Disney movie, flushing fish down a toilet drain will not set them free in the ocean, but rather melt them with chlorine disinfectant before shredding them into particles with processing machinery. Have a great weekend.

Unintended consequences & environmental engineering

Johnny Assay — Tue, 04 Mar 2003 19:21:30 -0800

The Chicago River was essentially the city of Chicago's cesspool until the construction of the Chicago Ship & Sanitary Canal, which connected the Chicago River to the Mississippi Basin in 1900. Now there's serious talk of intentionally returning a section of the river to a cesspool-like state, by dumping untreated sewage and (possibly) toxic chemicals into the river. The purpose: to prevent invasive species such as the Asian Carp and the Round Goby from using this connection to cross between the Great Lakes and Mississippi basins. Is it ever possible to avoid unintended consequences in environmental engineering? And is it necessary to "go nuclear", so to speak, to try to correct them?
[Second link RealAudio; transcript here.]

patrickje — Mon, 23 Sep 2002 13:19:41 -0800

The demise of the honey bucket. Many of us take running water and sewage services for granted. The Alaska Dept of Environmental Conservation is slowly converting rural Eskimo villages from a "fill and haul a bucket" sewage/water system to modern services. A fascinating look into the logistics required to bring these services into remote Artic villages.

readymade — Tue, 16 Apr 2002 11:35:31 -0800

Sometimes the really important news takes a while to get here. The Otago Daily Times in New Zealand reports on a sewage truck explosion: "A 50m trail of effluent" running down the road, a very dumbfounded driver, Lorraine Isaacs windshield hit by a flying sluice valve. Let the potty jokes begin.

keithl — Tue, 12 Mar 2002 12:39:31 -0800

Good news on the pollution front. Town in Northern California finds a way to turn its sewage into non-polluting water and make a wildlife refuge. If you live in Arcata, you can flush your toilet with pride! Quick overview here or the full flush.

da5id — Wed, 17 May 2000 10:26:11 -0800

Utterly Disgusting. I don't what made me more ill, the white stringy stuff, or the brown substance. Either or, it is just another example of how great government works... at any level.