In Ureal Time - Lessons about waste-water

OK, first thing this morning I urinated in the ocean. Having slept under the stars on a bed of crushed-shells on Galiano Island, I relieved myself once I got in half way in the freezing water.

Not my typical urinal of choice when camping: dozens of meters away from waterways is far more eco-kosher.

Now home shower-fresh (albeit with soap-ingredients that Story-of-Stuff's lady might poopoo in her latest scribble-diatribe on cosmetics) my next wave of concern is what goes down the drain (see bottom for lesson plan ideas on water-waste).

While I appreciate the teasing by one metafilter contributor, 

"It's a little known fact that sheep, cattle, and other wildlife, do not infact feel free to pee freely wherever they are, but harbour concern that their urea might somehow corrupt their natural environment, bringing about the end of times"

humans do need foresight when dealing with our proverbial piddles.

Withstanding my 150mL this morning,
un- (or little) treated raw sewage is main-stream. 

Cruise-ships regularly dump crusaders'deeds straight into the Georgia Straight. One organization tallied the average waste for a seven-day voyage to:

• "210,000 gallons of sewage, 
• a million gallons of gray water (runoff from sinks, baths, showers, laundry and galleys), 
• 25,000 gallons of oily bilge water, 
• 11,550 gallons of sewage sludge and 
• more than 130 gallons of hazardous wastes" (NY Times article).

Example of separated sewer connection

Combined sewage overflows routinely have rainwater intermingling with Vancouverite fecal-matter. While the City is reducing this "networking" by a per cent a year, rain deluge is the norm for the majority of the year (being in a temperate rainforest, this should not be a surprise). 

Activists in Victoria designed a 7-foot mascot akin to South Park's Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo.  In turn the "movement" surrounding Mr. Floatie effectively shamed B.C.'s capital city to go further than primary level sewage treatment.  (The project approved in 2009 will likely take 10 years to adhere to the norm of secondary & tertiary treament.)

History also highlights the essential role of sewage in urban planning. 

Years ago when a guide-interpreter of Callière's Point archealogical site in Old Montreal, stories of poop also figure strongly.  This point of land forged by la petite rivière St-Pierre served as breeding ground for water contaminants; the location also was where the alliance system of the Great Peace of Montreal was established between la nation française along with 40 indigenous nations in 1701 (see Choosing Water).

Historically like many major cities, cholera outbreaks caused thousands of deaths during the 1800s: the medical community attributed these deaths to miasma. 

Rendition of Pointe-à-Callière Museum: what lurks below our cities?

Versus recognizing water contamination as its true source (the vibrio cholarae microorganism), foul-smelling lagoons, ponds and streams were thus walled up to contain the believed air-particle carriers. Very much by accident this did represent an improvement in sewage treatment (see bottom left corner of above mural of buttressed sewer line constructed in Montreal in 1838).

A-HA! Connecting the dots: Statiscal research and cholera

However statistical analyses in London forged the connection between seeping latrines, the water table and wells.

Thus a germ theory necessitating the treatment and proper disposal of waste water supplanted the miasmatic theory of cleansing air near sites of decaying-organic matter.

Needless to say, what comes into a system must go out.  However, in today's green-washing jargon:

our bio-solids need not be seen as just another infrastructure expenditure.

The cities of Kelowna and Vernon for example have harnessed the Okanagan's collective poop, turning it into brown gold.  The Ogogrow site (a great play on words of the Anglo-Saxon version of the name of the Lake-dwelling serpent) manufactures high end compost from "dewatered biosolids."  A three-month process with considerable energy inputs has all major pathogens killed by means of aerobic heat reaching 55 degrees Celsius. 

Lastly on a pedagogical note,

our stools and urea are "fertile" ground for environmental inquiry...

For example research-action projects can :

• humanure compostable toilets can be studied cross-culturally.  See for example this couple's work in Victoria, offering guided tours;
  
• grey water can be studied as an applied-science project or in interior design classes so to redesign our kitchens and bathrooms;
• quantify waste water rates to real locales; for example, in Montreal the average per day is approximately equal to the volume of the Olympic Stadium;
• get to know the specific bylaws, enforcement and practices with your students, or arrange a visit to treatment plants with the city's engineers; for example in my quick survey, Vancouver deserves a Mr. Poo mascot like Victoria since 95% of all waste water receives only primary level treatment at the Iona Plant;
• the Project Wet guide offers multiple activities co-relating pathogens, disease and sanitation (Super Sleuths, p107), reproducing the poison-pump discovered by Dr. Snow in his spatial and statiscal research for cholera;
• have students guide a water drop through a labyrynth of drainpipes (Project Wet, Amaze-ing Water, p.219); recognize how contaminants from household and commercial (intentional or not "runoff") enters the watersystem via storm pipe;
• investigate quantities of waste water produced with other modes of travel (planes, trains and RV), or during festivals;