Today we visited the waste water treatment plant. Outside it smells about as terrible as you would expect but luckily for us, we spent most of our time at the plant inside learning about the treatment process.
There are three types of treatment: physical, biological, and chemical. For physical treatment they remove all of the solid garbage and compact it, for biological treatment they use microscopic "bugs", for chemical treatment they put bleach into the water and then remove it so that they can put the water back into the river safely.
We also learned that rainwater can cause issues because it creates more water to treat but doesn't need to be treated. Because of these issues only about six percent of water collection systems are combined waste and storm water.
Overall, the waste water treatment process is very complicated and even more important. It was a very interesting experience learning about all of the processes and complications that occur before waste water can be returned to the river clean again. I have to say though, I think that my favorite part of the visit was the "no diving" sign beside one of the shallow pits of waste water.
-----
After touring the dam, meeting with South Chickamauga Creek Greenway alliance, touring the wastewater treatment plant we ended a long day with a presentation about archeology by TVA archeologist Michaelyn Hale.
She showed us artifacts found in or near the Tennessee River and we learned about important Mississippian sites. The history of archeology at TVA was fascinating; among other things, we learned about work to document artifacts prior to flooding due to Chickamauga Dam.
She showed us artifacts found in or near the Tennessee River and we learned about important Mississippian sites. The history of archeology at TVA was fascinating; among other things, we learned about work to document artifacts prior to flooding due to Chickamauga Dam.
No comments:
Post a Comment