How Aurora, CO recycles wastewater

[pixy0stix]

How Aurora recycles enough wastewater to serve tens of thousands of homes through its complex Prairie Waters project - coloradosun.com/2023/01/19/prairie-waters-aurora-recycling-reuse-expansion/


Since we were talking about water laws, here's how the third largest CO city is working through providing more water to it's citizens within the boundaries of strict water laws. 

[icedcoffee]

Interesting. This article has made me realize I don’t really have any idea what happens with wastewater when it leaves my house. 🤔

[wesleycrusher]

icedcoffee every year my city's water and sanitation authority has an open house where they have booths with all the projects in development and plant tours. You can see if yours does something similar- I don't think it's something people think to look for.

It's interesting to see the difference- our wastewater gets treated and then pumped back out into our local rivers, there's no recycling as we are not in a drought impacted area. ETA: the big problem in my area is overflow when there is high amounts of rainfall

[icedcoffee]

Jan 19, 2023 18:53:46 GMT -5 wesleycrusher said:

icedcoffee every year my city's water and sanitation authority has an open house where they have booths with all the projects in development and plant tours. You can see if yours does something similar- I don't think it's something people think to look for.

It's interesting to see the difference- our wastewater gets treated and then pumped back out into our local rivers, there's no recycling as we are not in a drought impacted area. ETA: the big problem in my area is overflow when there is high amounts of rainfall

I would love to go to something like that. Also
—my recycling center!

In school growing up we had a field trip to a landfill and it was fascinating!

[VillainV]

My neighborhood in NC uses reclaimed water from neighborhood homes to irrigate community spaces, and has been planned around tiny home lots with numerous parks and playground. I assume they separate out grey water from black? It gets pumped into holding ponds on the edges of the neighborhood where it gets treated (somehow? Not sure how, probably filtered?) and used for irrigation. We’re not in any kind of drought area, so I appreciate that our neighborhood was designed to reclaim and reuse the water.

[pixy0stix]

Jan 19, 2023 19:26:17 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

Jan 19, 2023 18:53:46 GMT -5 wesleycrusher said:

icedcoffee every year my city's water and sanitation authority has an open house where they have booths with all the projects in development and plant tours. You can see if yours does something similar- I don't think it's something people think to look for.

It's interesting to see the difference- our wastewater gets treated and then pumped back out into our local rivers, there's no recycling as we are not in a drought impacted area. ETA: the big problem in my area is overflow when there is high amounts of rainfall

I would love to go to something like that. Also
—my recycling center!

In school growing up we had a field trip to a landfill and it was fascinating!

I did a tour of my local recycling plant. It was fun!

[bears]

Jan 19, 2023 20:50:22 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Jan 19, 2023 19:26:17 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

I would love to go to something like that. Also
—my recycling center!

In school growing up we had a field trip to a landfill and it was fascinating!

I did a tour of my local recycling plant. It was fun!

Thanks to this thread I've learned that you can get tours of our local water and wastewater treatment plants!  I'm going to see if I can get a group of folks together.

In college, I did a summer program where we visited Vermont and toured the Ben & Jerry's water treatment plant, a composting facility, and a wood burning power plant. All of these visits were so interesting.

[agnes]

Apparently Orange County, CA has the world’s largest water recycling plant. I drive by it all the time. Some times the smell is…pungent.

laist.com/news/climate-environment/the-largest-water-recycling-plant-is-in-socal-and-it-plans-to-refresh-itself

[escrow]

Interesting. DH works for Aurora Water, I will have to go ask him about this.

[mrsukyankee]

So, what's happening in the UK is disgusting and we're trying to fight it. Water is not publicly owned (thanks Thatcher). It's owned by private companies, who pretty much have people paying Tory leaders to do jack shit about the horrible things they are doing. We now have gone from rivers and ocean fronts supporting wildlife to mass dying off of various creatures. England is now one of the worst places in Europe when it comes to water quality, with just 14 per cent of rivers in “good” ecological condition.

Yup - money over the health of a nation.

Here’s why sewage is being dumped into seas and rivers – and what you can do about itWater companies are dumping sewage into UK seas and rivers at an astonishing rate. Here’s why it’s happening – and how we can fix it.

[icedcoffee]

I just can’t wrap my head around how they can make literal shit water into clean drinking water! I really want a tour! 😝

[tacokick]

The treatment plant tours are really fun. I don’t want to brag (lol) but I’ve been to my local one and ones in France and Portugal. They were in the guidebook! Treatment plant people are very excited to share with you.

[tacokick]

Jan 20, 2023 6:35:05 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

So, what's happening in the UK is disgusting and we're trying to fight it. Water is not publicly owned (thanks Thatcher). It's owned by private companies, who pretty much have people paying Tory leaders to do jack shit about the horrible things they are doing. We now have gone from rivers and ocean fronts supporting wildlife to mass dying off of various creatures. England is now one of the worst places in Europe when it comes to water quality, with just 14 per cent of rivers in “good” ecological condition.

Yup - money over the health of a nation.

Here’s why sewage is being dumped into seas and rivers – and what you can do about itWater companies are dumping sewage into UK seas and rivers at an astonishing rate. Here’s why it’s happening – and how we can fix it.

I just saw this yesterday on a mudlarking account I follow. Just a massive amount of straight up “fresh” sewage right in the river.

[AdaraMarie]

Awesome! I worked on parts if the Prairie Waters Project for years as a baby engineer, I didn't know they were expanding it again.

[jinkies]

My H works at a wastewater treatment plant and I can confirm that he gets very excited to give people tours. It is really interesting!

He offers to give people tours all the time, but roughly 80% of people think it is disgusting and he must be joking LOL.

The local high schools sometimes bring the science classes to tour. I think it's great for people to understand what happens to the water and waste that your house produces.

[icedcoffee]

Jan 20, 2023 8:34:47 GMT -5 jinkies said:

My H works at a wastewater treatment plant and I can confirm that he gets very excited to give people tours. It is really interesting!

He offers to give people tours all the time, but roughly 80% of people think it is disgusting and he must be joking LOL.

The local high schools sometimes bring the science classes to tour. I think it's great for people to understand what happens to the water and waste that your house produces.

I think this should be mandatory high school trip, honestly.  My landfill tour really stuck with me even 25 years later.

[agnes]

I didn’t even realize you could tour these places. I think I wanna do it now.

[pixy0stix]

Field trips for everyone!

Lol, this thread made me happy.

[breezy8407]

This reminded me of St. Cloud, MN and their wastewater treatment plant that turns food and beverage waste into usable products like fertilizer. I think they also have some innovative uses of sanitary sewer wastewater treatment. I've heard they've won awards for the taste of their city tap water (source: my parents, but I can't find a link)

www.startribune.com/innovation-at-wastewater-plant-propels-st-cloud-to-renewable-energy-leader/600175342/

[wesleycrusher]

Jan 20, 2023 8:27:01 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Jan 20, 2023 6:35:05 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

So, what's happening in the UK is disgusting and we're trying to fight it. Water is not publicly owned (thanks Thatcher). It's owned by private companies, who pretty much have people paying Tory leaders to do jack shit about the horrible things they are doing. We now have gone from rivers and ocean fronts supporting wildlife to mass dying off of various creatures. England is now one of the worst places in Europe when it comes to water quality, with just 14 per cent of rivers in “good” ecological condition.

Yup - money over the health of a nation.

Here’s why sewage is being dumped into seas and rivers – and what you can do about itWater companies are dumping sewage into UK seas and rivers at an astonishing rate. Here’s why it’s happening – and how we can fix it.

I just saw this yesterday on a mudlarking account I follow. Just a massive amount of straight up “fresh” sewage right in the river.

That's the big issue in my city when I mentioned overflow. During bad rains the treatment plant can't keep up with the additional runoff volume and sewage overflows into our local rivers.  There are alert signs on the river when this occurs.  It is a massive project to correct, taking years to implement at a cost of billions of dollars to build. Plus the cost to keep up with aging infrastructure...our sanitation bills have gone up significantly over the past few years due to this.  

There are also smaller projects in terms of creating prairies or other gardens throughout the city to limit the runoff during rains. 

It's all very interesting to see how it all come together. 

[audette]

Jan 20, 2023 9:11:21 GMT -5 agnes said:

I didn’t even realize you could tour these places. I think I wanna do it now.

Yeah, this...

I just looked up our local waste water treatment plant online.  I don't see anywhere for folks to request tours, but I suppose interested people could reach out to them...


Next up, checking the local waste treatment facility.

[tacokick]

Jan 20, 2023 10:14:17 GMT -5 audette said:

Jan 20, 2023 9:11:21 GMT -5 agnes said:

I didn’t even realize you could tour these places. I think I wanna do it now.

Yeah, this...

I just looked up our local waste water treatment plant online.  I don't see anywhere for folks to request tours, but I suppose interested people could reach out to them...


Next up, checking the local waste treatment facility.

Our tours were through parks and rec. It might be worth checking them out.

[agnes]

Jan 20, 2023 10:14:17 GMT -5 audette said:

Jan 20, 2023 9:11:21 GMT -5 agnes said:

I didn’t even realize you could tour these places. I think I wanna do it now.

Yeah, this...

I just looked up our local waste water treatment plant online.  I don't see anywhere for folks to request tours, but I suppose interested people could reach out to them...


Next up, checking the local waste treatment facility.

I googled mine, and they let the public tour the last Friday of every month. And you can request private tours. Who knew? Lol