Every time you flush the toilet, you're adding to a problem that old cities like Philadelphia around the United States have to deal with, sewage. But Philadelphia is getting praise for its plan to keep sewage out of area waterways.
The nasty situation can get nastier when heavy rains come and tax the 3,700-mile-or-so labyrinth underground in the City of Brotherly leaving area creeks, rivers, basements and manholes vulnerable to getting flooded with sewage.
A Popular Mechanics article “How Philadelphia Will Solve the Sewage Nightmare Under Its Feet” breaks down what's happening underground:
On a typical day, the system handles about 471 million gallons of waste, though it can handle as much as a billion gallons a day if necessary. If the total goes beyond that, the excess flow must be released somehow. Last year, some 11 billion gallons of sewage was released from the system and dumped into local waterways, untreated, because it was more than the system could handle. In colonial times, it was standard practice to dump waste into the harbor or throw into the streets and let the rain wash it into sea. People figured the sea was deep and large, and anything dumped there would disappear or dissolve. We now know that's not the case. The only upside to the release is that it prevents sewage from backing up into people's homes. Most of the time.
"The only time you'd see that happen is in a hurricane, where, literally, there is so much storm water rushing in, the whole system is at capacity, and it might pop open a basement fixture, like a utility sink or a floor drain, or even a toilet, if there's one down there. That happens in all these big cities," Deputy Commissioner of Planning and Environmental Services for the Philadelphia Water Department Chris Crockett said. "Basically, in most cities if you get two inches per hour of rain and throw in a high tide, the opportunity for basement flooding is likely."
Read more about how Philadelphia is using green initiatives at homes, businesses and public spaces to combat sewage run-off by lowering the amount of water finding it’s way into the sewers.
READ MORE: Popular Mechanics
