This week’s current event brought me into the exciting world of Outstanding Performance Awards for Wastewater Treatment Plants in Washington State. All together 110 facilities in the state of Washington were recognized for their top-notch performance in preventing pathogens, chemicals, trash, and sewage from getting into waterways. Washington state’s wastewater treatment operators have kept the state’s bodies of water clean by treating, monitoring, preventing and limiting pollutants from every drain and toilet flush in the state to meet the standards of the Clean Water Act.
I have a vivid memory of going on a third-grade field trip to the wastewater treatment plan in my hometown, where my class of fellow nine-year old’s saw first hand the horrors of the necessary process of wastewater treatment. Those sewage-scented memories came rushing back to me.
There were big hits of course, like the smell. The smell was by far the most memorable part of this experience. It was every run-down outhouse, festival port-a-potty, and broken sewage line condensed into one industrial open-air campus on the edge of town. Then there was the suspended bag of solid waste being transferred to an oversized trash bin, the conveyer belt ladder circulating distressingly identifiable bits of floating debris, and finally the cheerful employee recounting the time he pulled a diamond ring out of the sludge. “You’ll never know what you’ll find at this job!” he’d said with a wide grin.
On a personal level, this field trip had been a slightly traumatic consequence of holistic education, but it did teach an important level about the necessity of a functioning wastewater treatment program for the health and safety of the community and environment it exists in. Waste doesn’t just disappear with the flush of a toilet and individuals need to take responsibility for keeping the system working.
News radio KPQ of Washington, who reported six local treatment plants had earned the honor of Outstanding Performance Awards they told the public, “Be honest…. Did you pour the leftover grease from cooking down the kitchen drain? If you answered yes and are connected to the local sewer system, we suggest you thank a wastewater treatment plant operator!”
As an individual, you can prevent catastrophic contamination in your community by following basic common sense wastewater rules:
- Never throw unused medication, hazardous cleaning supplies, or motor oil down the drain
- Properly dispose of cooking oil and grease
- Remove pet waste from lawns and use fertilizer sparingly
- Don’t flush wipes or sanitary items down the toilet
Ignoring these basics can cause catastrophic failures. One of the best illustrations of this small but consequential action was the great Fatberg of London in 2017. NPR’s Jason Slotkin gave the event the headline “Behold The Fatberg: London’s 130-Ton, ‘Rock-Solid’ Sewer Blockage” to elucidate the gravity of the situation. Blockages caused by wet wipes and cooking fat are not uncommon and occur at a rate of roughly eight a week, costing just over $1.3 million dollars a month removing them. This one was different. The BBC contextualizes it with statistics, the Fatberg was about as heavy as 11 double-decker buses, nearly as much as a blue whale, and twice as long as London’s Wembley Stadium. Thames Water’s head of waste networks, Matt Rimmer, said: “It’s frustrating as these situations are totally avoidable and caused by fat, oil, and grease being washed down sinks and wipes flushed down the loo.”
