[GreenYes] Re: Food debris belongs outside the pipe.

[Helen Spiegelman <hspie@no.address>]

Alan's concerns (which I share) relate to the likelihood that conventional 
sewer systems will sometimes fail. My concern is that conventional systems 
may be inherently flawed in their design, not only because of downstream 
impacts but because of upstream impacts. Lester Brown's Plan B 2.0, Chapter 
3, convinced me that "Emerging Water Shortages" are a real concern and that 
liquid waste management systems that rely on enormous throughputs of water 
may be part of the problem.

I think this is something that we should be tracking.

Helen.

At 08:34 AM 8/9/2006, Alan Muller wrote:
>if untreated sewage is discharged (and the reasons and excuses for doing 
>this are many), and food waste is in the sewage, untreated food waste will 
>be discharged, and at the very least this will contribute BOD (biological 
>oxygen demand).  To put this another way for non-sewer-wonks:  yes, the 
>food waste is somewhat biodegradable (I don't know about bones and such) 
>but if this degradation (oxidation) occurs in the "receiving waters" it 
>will take up oxygen and contribute to water quality problems, fish kills, 
>etc.  Low oxygen levels are a common water quality problem associated with 
>sewage discharges....
>
>So I guess I am saying that unless one can show that the sewer system in 
>question will treat ALL the sewage, ALL the time, and has adequate 
>capability to do so, and unless one can show that the "receiving waters" 
>meet all water quality standards (rare), then unnecessary load should be 
>kept out of the system....  Not everybody agrees that there are good 
>alternatives to, say, flushing feces down the drain, but we all know there 
>are good alternatives to flushing food waste.
>
>This is an interesting subject.  The more I think about it the more 
>opposed to disposalls I seem to be getting.


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