Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Intro to Environmental Engineering

My next Environmental Engineering exam includes Drinking Water and Wastewater Treatment topics.

*Totally new idea...*
- Did you ever think about sludge being generated by the treatment of Drinking Water? I hadn't. Plants that treat surface water (from reservoirs or streams) have to use sedimentation tanks, etc, to get rid of solids suspended in the water. This produces sludge, which is something I associated with waste water only. (Sludge example: that thick black junk in the bottom of your septic tank)

Side note: My last post talked about USGS evaluating surface water quality. One reason it's so important to monitor/improve surface water quality is because it's more and more costly to treat that water for our use. If we have fewer suspended solids (that's the stuff that gets settled out and we call sludge eventually), and fewer contaminants that we have to remove before we use the water, it will cost us a lot less to treat the water.

*Kind of knew something like this was happening...but now I get some detail...*
- Why is chlorine the disinfectant of choice for drinking water? One reason is that it's relatively cheap. Another reason is that chlorine (in a certain form) can remain active as a disinfectant (residual time) even while the water travels out of the plant and through pipes, etc.
Here's and article: Chlorination: The Love/Hate Relationship
(Wow - all we need is a little violence/action and this topic would have all the intrigue of Shakespeare!)

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Notice the new link I added on the right hand side:
Water & Wastes Digest

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