Category:Wastewater Treatment

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• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:OaklandWastewater_plant.jpg

EBMUD became the first wastewater treatment plant in North America to produce more renewable energy onsite than is needed to run the facility

SJS / GreenPolicy Siterunner:

Many years ago after I graduated from the University of Southern California, I worked for a period of time with the Oakland School District as a consultant. I was writing environmental speeches and public remarks for Eddie Albert, the actor who was an early environmental advocate, and one of the subject we spoke of was "cleaning up the Bay", San Francisco Bay. The Oakland schools asked me to give tours of the new East Bay Wastewater Treatment plant and for many months I became, as I was fondly known, "the poop plant tour guy".

Here's the plant years later (and directions for schools today) http://www.ebmud.com/wastewater/collection-treatment/wastewater-treatment-plant-tours/

It became a model for many similar plants around the nation at the beginning of the "clean water era".

One of my favorite parts of the tours was at the conclusion of the learning lesson, when I'd bring the kids down to the shores of San Francisco Bay and walk them along the edge, looking at tidal pools, now brimming with life as a result of having cleaned up the Bay's waters.

I'd tell them stories of Jack London and 'how it used to be' when he fished the Bay, and how it became seriously polluted with industrial "effluents", including "what comes out of your houses", goes into the sewers and, in the old days of untreated waste, 'it' flowed directly into the Bay's waters.

The walk 'n talk was an experience for East Bay kids, many of whom had never even been to the Bay.

It was impressive to see them understand how cleaning up the environment for the good of all could be such a success.

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btw, speaking of waste, human waste, pollution, and health...

Nearly a Billion People Still Defecate Outdoors. Here’s Why

National Geographic / August 2017 / The problem isn’t just a lack of toilets — it’s a lack of toilets that people want to use. The result: millions of deaths and disease-stunted lives...

● https://sanitationupdates.wordpress.com/2017/08/09/nearly-a-billion-people-still-defecate-outdoors-heres-why/

● https://twitter.com/waterforpeople/status/893218738501189632

● https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/matt-damon-we-need-to-talk-about-toilets/

Almost half the population in developing regions doesn't have access to sanitary facilities, and an estimated 1.1 billion people practice open defecation, meaning they have to relieve themselves in fields, bushes, forests, rivers or streams, roadsides, or other public spaces.

Societies that practice open defecation are putting themselves at risk of cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid.

According to Water.org, one in 10 people across the world lacks access to safe water – that’s more than twice the population of the United States.

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