How Sacramento Wastewater Treatment Is Done: Everything You Should Know

Have you ever thought about what happens to your home's dirty water after you flush it away? The water from your shower, dishwasher, or toilet simply disappears, right? Well, not exactly. The water you flushed away, now called wastewater, will go through a complex journey before it's safe to reenter the environment or be reused once again. 

And this is what keeps our Sacramento communities clean and free from diseases. All thanks to the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (SRCSD), which cleans millions of gallons of water every day to protect public health, reduce environmental impact, and recycle the treated wastewater back into the system. 

Now, you might be wondering, "How does wastewater treatment in Sacramento actually work?" Well, let's break it down for you in a simple way!

Gray Water Vs. Black Water: What's The Difference?

Before your home's wastewater is treated, it's important to know what kind of water we're talking about. In your home, the water you use is basically of two types:

• Gray Water: This type of water comes from sinks, showers, bathtubs, and washing machines. While they are dirty, they aren't that harmful to you. Some homeowners even use this gray water for irrigation.

• Black Water: These types of water are contaminated, often contain human waste, and usually include water from toilets. So, treating black water in a wastewater treatment facility is extremely important before it is reused or released into the environment again. Usually, both the black and gray water are collected from your home's sewer lines through a network of underground municipal sewer pipes. Then, they are directed to the water treatment plant, where the wastewater treatment process begins. In the next few sections, we will cover all of the steps of the treatment process one by one!

Step 1:  Wastewater Process Starts

The first step of wastewater treatment is quite simple and straightforward. After the wastewater leaves your home through the sewer system, it arrives at the treatment facility. Then, it first enters the large settling tanks. Now, an interesting process starts:

• The heavy solid waste will sink to the bottom and form what's called sludge.
• Grease, oil, and all the other lighter debris will float to the top and will be skimmed off.

Then the solids from the water stream are removed and either sent to landfills or treated separately.

Step 2: Biological Cleaning

Now that the bigger stuff is taken care of, it's time for nature to help out in the wastewater processing. You'll be surprised to know that in the second step, it's the good bacteria that play the main role! 

• The good bacteria eat away the remaining contaminants from the wastewater. 
• Next, the treatment plant usually adds oxygen to the water to help these bacteria thrive. 
• When the bacteria start growing, they break down organic material like leftover waste particles.

This process is extremely useful in removing up to 90% of the contaminants that were still in the wastewater! You might think, "What would have happened without this technology?" The answer is simple: it would have taken weeks or even months for the same biological breakdown of the waste to occur on its own! 

Step 3: Filtration and Disinfection

Now, the initial wastewater that you got rid of is mostly clean. But it'll go through an advanced filtration process, which includes activated charcoal and fine screens, to make the water even cleaner and healthier. This step will ensure that the water is free from:

• Chemical pollutants,
• Leftover bacteria,
• Microscopic particles, etc.

Some facilities often go a step further to clean the water by using processes that include ultraviolet light or chlorine to kill off any remaining pathogens. This way, one can ensure the water released back into the rivers or reused for agriculture is clean and safe.