Disposing of Solid Waste From a Dessicating Toilet

[thinwater]

It is worth explaining just a bit what combined sewers are. Google it.


Sanitary and storm sewer in the same pipe. You can imagine, the first sewers, as much as 200 years ago, simply took everything to the river. Eventually they were upgraded with lift stations, so that all of it is treated, except BY DESIGN they overflow when it rains hard. Not an accident. You can't treat the full thunderstorm flow.


Combined sewers seemed like a good design at the time, 200 years ago. Better than crap on the street. They have not been built that way in 75 years or more, but old cities in the northeast still have them. Little by little, they are being removed, but many are under buildings and critical structures.



Most overflows are not laziness on the part of sewer authorities, they are a lack of public funding to remove combined sewers. Not a high-glamor project.

[rslifkin]

Our local area came up with an interesting solution to combined sewer overflows in the 80s and 90s. They built massive tunnels into underground rock that are used to store overflows and allow them to be treated later. Capacity of the tunnels is a few hundred million gallons. Occasional overflows still happen with that system, but it's fairly rare now.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

... Not sure what this means for a composting (desiccating) head users, except that we don’t contribute much to this particular problem.

That was my intended implication - If not just dumped overboard.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by GordMay

That was my intended implication - If not just dumped overboard.

What really irritates me is all of the communities in Canada that still dump raw sewage into my puget sound. Yes they dump north of the sound but tidal flow brings it my way .
BTW we are a no discharge zone.
At least Victoria says they now treat their sewage before discharging into the Satish sea. And straight of Juan De Fuca. Just no saying what degree it's treated .
And they yell at us boaters.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by GordMay

That was my intended implication - If not just dumped overboard.

True. Although I guess the real lesson or message is that the problem of sewage in coastal waterways is rarely about boats, regardless of how it is handled.

To me, the only time the pollution question really matters, is when I’m in a small, enclosed anchorage or perhaps a marina. In areas of low volume/low flow, discharge from boats into the surroundings can have a negative impact. Here is when a boat needs some sort of holding, or perhaps fully processing, system on board.

[Mike OReilly]

Newfoundland communities do a lot of direct discharge into their coastal waterways. Some bigger places, like St. John’s, have treatment systems, but many still just let it all flush out to sea.

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t know of any boat pump out facilities on the island. Many boats have no holding or treating capacity at all.

[sailingharry]

To Mike's point. We found obtaining diesel to be very difficult on the island. At a major port, Port aux Basque, a local took me and 2 Gerry jugs a few miles to a toad station. Another, I forget where, you called a number, told him how many gallons you needed, pay for it over the phone, and he showed up with a pickup truck with 55 Gal drums and a pump (he went to the filling station to get the right amount).

With that as background, I can imagine the response to asking about a pump out[emoji16]

I routinely send to my holding tank (Mike's comment on harbours) and daily on passage empty the tank (without regard to distance offshore). Not legal, but makes me happy.

[desodave]

Originally Posted by newhaul

What really irritates me is all of the communities in Canada that still dump raw sewage into my puget sound. Yes they dump north of the sound but tidal flow brings it my way .

BTW we are a no discharge zone.

At least Victoria says they now treat their sewage before discharging into the Satish sea. And straight of Juan De Fuca. Just no saying what degree it's treated .

And they yell at us boaters.

Victoria's new treatment plant removes the solids and currently is piping them to a plant at the old Hartland Rd landfill, well inland. They claim that the wastewater is treated to a tertiary level. There has been recent controversy regarding the disposition of those solids, however, and my understanding they are now being stored at that landfill.
I agree with your disgust at how Victoria resisted any treatment for so many years. Especially when people then harp on about the effect of boats. However, I know of no other BC systems that are pumping out raw untreated sewage. I suspect Vancouver's output is no different than Seattle or Tacoma, primary treatment. We also have our share of combined sewer systems, again as I suspect your Puget Sound cities do. It's a slow process to get them upgraded as already noted.
The Canadian Strait is not a NDZ although there are a lot of no discharge areas. In my northern part of the Strait there are very few (operational) pumpouts so our sewage does go overboard in line with Canadian federal requirements. But our cities and towns do have at least primary treatment of their waste.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by desodave

Victoria's new treatment plant removes the solids and currently is piping them to a plant at the old Hartland Rd landfill, well inland. They claim that the wastewater is treated to a tertiary level. There has been recent controversy regarding the disposition of those solids, however, and my understanding they are now being stored at that landfill.
I agree with your disgust at how Victoria resisted any treatment for so many years. Especially when people then harp on about the effect of boats. However, I know of no other BC systems that are pumping out raw untreated sewage. I suspect Vancouver's output is no different than Seattle or Tacoma, primary treatment. We also have our share of combined sewer systems, again as I suspect your Puget Sound cities do. It's a slow process to get them upgraded as already noted.
The Canadian Strait is not a NDZ although there are a lot of no discharge areas. In my northern part of the Strait there are very few (operational) pumpouts so our sewage does go overboard in line with Canadian federal requirements. But our cities and towns do have at least primary treatment of their waste.

Actually our systems are all split into waste and storm not combined anywhere in puget sound . As to Canadian cities unfortunately Tofino still does and I'm sure there are a few small communities as well no real Incentives to clean it up .
https://www.oakbaynews.com/news/tofi...nt-soon-510155

[GordMay]

Construction of Phase 1, of Tofino’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, finally began [after Funding & Covid-related delays] in September of 2022, and services Tofino [pop. 2500], the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation [pop. 1200], and has the ability to connect with Parks Canada, in the future.
The project is on track to be completed in late 2024.

Crews have begun building the facility, that will include UV disinfection, ensuring all effluent complies with the most stringent federal Wastewater System Effluent Regulations standards. Work is also already underway on Phase 2, to upgrade and replace legacy conveyance infrastructure, and install new pump stations.
Combining both phases will culminate in a project valued at $77.5 million [up from original budget of $44m], the largest capital project the District of Tofino has ever undertaken, which will end the decades-long practice of discharging untreated effluent into the marine environment.

Updates ➥ https://talktofino.ca/wastewater-treatment-plant

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Construction of Phase 1, of Tofino’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, finally began [after Funding & Covid-related delays] in September of 2022, and services Tofino [pop. 2500], the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation [pop. 1200], and has the ability to connect with Parks Canada, in the future.
The project is on track to be completed in late 2024.

Crews have begun building the facility, that will include UV disinfection, ensuring all effluent complies with the most stringent federal Wastewater System Effluent Regulations standards. Work is also already underway on Phase 2, to upgrade and replace legacy conveyance infrastructure, and install new pump stations.
Combining both phases will culminate in a project valued at $77.5 million [up from original budget of $44m], the largest capital project the District of Tofino has ever undertaken, which will end the decades-long practice of discharging untreated effluent into the marine environment.

Updates ➥ https://talktofino.ca/wastewater-treatment-plant

Yep makes me happy to know they are working toward fixing a problem that affects us all.
Thanks for the update

[Mike OReilly]

Just got my head all charged up and ready to use. One brick of coir, lightly hydrated, now all broken up and installed. I put about 2/3rd in to start, and save the rest for later adding, starting about 1/2 way through the cycle.