Embedded Files
This site is under construction 🚧🙂🚧 Message the mods at our Reddit community if you'd like to help. We'd be excited to have it!
Table of Contents
Introduction
Introduction
As the human population climbs, so does the amount of sewage we create. In many parts of the world, this sewage is improperly treated, or not treated at all before being released into the environment.
This negatively impacts aquatic ecosystems including ocean reefs, seagrass meadows, rivers, and lakes. It also increases the health risks posed by microbes, viruses, forever chemicals, antibiotics, and even flesh- or brain-eating amoebae.
Improperly treating or neglecting to treat sewage also negatively impacts our water security. Modern solutions that allow for nature-based sewage-treatment and toilet-to-tap systems that allow us to properly recycle water, will help ensure that communities in drought-stricken areas can continue even through drier periods.
Sources of Sewage
Sources of Sewage
The following are listed (to the best of our ability) from the largest sources, to lesser sources of sewage pollution. We've taken into account the respective population sizes, that different species produce varying amounts of waste, and that some types of sewage are more or less problematic than others.
For example rabbit droppings can famously be used directly on gardens as fertilizer, while cat feces notoriously spreads deadly pathogens to other animals including humans and endangered otters. There's also the issue that human waste is often processed to help reduce ecological impact, while livestock waste is often left or even intentionally sprayed over fields where it can cause mass wildlife deaths.
Livestock
Livestock
Not only do livestock outnumber humans and wildlife, but unlike human waste, livestock waste is not processed to the same standard, to reduce it's ecological impact. Waste from livestock that graze or forage can impact wildlife both with run off and the medications in their waste.
Similarly factory farmed livestock have their waste collected in massive manure lagoons, which can leach into the environment via leaks or during flood events. After a certain amount of time, the slurry from the lagoons is sprayed over fields, causing serious air pollution that can sicken local communities, and the improperly treated sewage often kills thousands of fish during rain events.
"In 2012, livestock and poultry on the largest concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) produced 369 million tons of manure: this was almost 13 times more waste than that of the entire US population of 312 million. 1 While human waste is treated in municipal sewer systems and subject to strict regulation, animal waste is stored in open ponds (called lagoons) or pits and is applied untreated as fertilizer to farm fields. The mixture in lagoons consists not only of animal excrement but of bedding waste, antibiotic residues, cleaning solutions and other chemicals, and sometimes dead animals. Most lagoons are lined only with clay and can leak, allowing the waste to seep into groundwater." - FoodPrint: What Happens to Animal Waste?
Poultry
Poultry
Chickens not only outnumber humans, but all wild birds too! Their feces can spread various pathogens including salmonella which can wash or be sprayed onto fields, causing contamination - resulting in food recalls or even deaths.
Cattle
Cattle
Humans
Humans
Around the world, scientists can see evidence of the impacts untreated sewage is having on coral and seagrass ecosystems. We often think of this as an issue of undeveloped countries or countries that are still catching up to modern hygiene and technological standards, however sewage release is also a major problem in countries and communities where sewage systems are aging or unable to keep up with booming urban populations.
Pets
Pets
Dogs
Dogs
When people don't pick up after their pet dogs, the feces gets washed into waterways where it can contribute to deadly algae blooms, and flesh-eating amoeba outbreaks. Perhaps ironically, these dangers can be particularly deadly for swimmers and pet dogs who are allowed to swim in contaminated waters.
Disease Spread
Disease Spread
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Ammonia
Ammonia
Carbon Dioxide
Carbon Dioxide
"Wastewater treatment plants may be responsible for emitting up to 23 percent more greenhouse gas than previously thought because of fossil fuels in detergent-laden water from residential showers, household washing machines and industrial sites, new research shows." - Climate Central: Sewage Plants Overlooked Source of CO2
Methane
Methane
Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous Oxide
Chemical Contamination
Chemical Contamination
Antibiotics & Other Drugs
Antibiotics & Other Drugs
Around a decade ago, scientists found that most of the major rivers they studied had dangerously high levels of antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals. Antibiotics in near sewage release sites have been found to kill off the entire food chain, starting with the natural soil microbes at the base of the food chain. Meanwhile drugs such as antidepressents and anphetamines have been found to impact fish and other species from their eating habit
Personal Care & Hygiene Products
Personal Care & Hygiene Products
Many detergents, personal care, and hygiene supplies contain petrochemical byproducts from the oil industry. These not only produce greenhouse gases during the water treatment process, but can wreak havoc on our health, as well as that of other organisms in the environment.
Solutions
Solutions
3:08 minute video "This project enables the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) to divert an average of 91 million gallons per day (MGD) of effluent dominated water from the East Fork of the Trinity River to be polished in one of the largest constructed wetlands in the country (1,840 acres). After passage through the wetlands, the water is pumped through an 84-inch-diameter pipeline 44 miles north of the project site to Lake Lavon for storage, blending and water supply use.
A multi-year project, work first began on the constructed wetland in 2004 with the design and construction of the first of two nursery wetlands. The initial nursery, 20-acres in size, was used to provide plant stock of selected emergent wetland species for a 200-acre second phase nursery. The 200-acre nursery, completed in early 2006, was used to provide over 1.6 million plants for the full scale wetland, completed in 2009.
The constructed wetland treatment process includes sedimentation basins and the wetland cells:
Sedimentation basins serve to remove the suspended solids that are in the water diverted from the East Fork of the Trinity River.
Constructed wetland cells serve to remove numerous constituents in the water through the aquatic plants, bacteria, and physical removal processes."
Constructed Wetlands
Constructed Wetlands
Eco-Friendly Toilets
Eco-Friendly Toilets
Click the Toilets button to see a wide variety of toilets that are designed with various environmental issues including water harvesting, water saving & recycling, composting, etc.
Grey Water Systems
Grey Water Systems
Grey Water Systems help us reduce water us, and reuse it throughout a building and/or landscape before releasing it back into nature.
Resources
Resources
North America
North America
USA
USA
California
State Wildlife Action Plan "A plan for conserving California's wildlife resources while responding to environmental challenges"
Maps
Maps
International
International
The Impacts of Human Sewage in Coastal Marine Ecosystems includes maps showing impacts on seagrass meadows and coral as well as which countries have an outsized or unusually low level of impact on the environment with their sewage.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse