They Take Our Mess
The Galesburg Sanitation District sits on the outskirts of Galesburg. You may be wondering exactly who they are and what they do, and rest assured you'll be glad that you don't have to call them to fix your $h!t 🤯 Yes, it's disgusting, but let's face the face, we all do it! We just don't like to talk about it 😲🤐😶
At a young age, we learn how to go to the "potty." Pretty simple you would think, WRONG! Below we watch Plucky learn how to use the "potty" and later we will see what happens when we don't use it properly.
The process that our waste undergoes was very interesting, to say the least. The current processes are very energy and cost-efficient, and unfortunately, due to coding and age, there will be big changes in the future. Once our solid waste is broken down, it has many uses.
Before we get into sh!t, let's begin by how it all got started. Back in the Middle Ages, there weren't luxuries as we have today, such as running water, a flushing toilet, and electricity. When it was time to do your business, there was a "chamber pot" that you would use and toss your excrements out the window. In some places, such as in Scotland, before tossing your waste out they would shout "gardyloo" as a warning to anyone passing by! Could you imagine? Now just imagine the smells, don't really 💩. There was no place for sh!t to go.
When you walk into the building you would probably think that it would have this atrocious odor, but it's just like any other older building. You're actually taken aback by the beauty of the building and its natural lighting. There are many levels and on the lower level the blue engines help to keep this operation going, and you won't believe how it's fueled🤯
One of the first steps in breaking down our waste involves separating the solids and the liquids. The pump has to be able to move the heaviest of the solids, called grit, will settle to the bottom and the liquid will continue to move. The grit gets scooped out to be broken down further in a much larger tank (pictured below).
In the next steps, the solids are separate even more and at the bottom, there's a drain line that sucks out the heavier of the solids, called sludge. There are still particles that float to the top that are collected by a scum arm. Most of these particles are grease and that's why it's so important that grease not be disposed of down the drain.
*If you think about the drains in the city like the arteries inside your body. If you eat fatty and greasy foods, your arteries start to get clogged, and blood can't pump to the heart, which eventually can lead to a heart attack. The drains are similar. Once grease builds up water can't flow and it'll back up the pipes. Now that's something you wouldn't want to experience.
The final stages of how our waste is broken down is the most interesting…
There’s always water that’s being put in the system. The water come through the tank in the floor and gets pumped to the grit channel into the big concrete clarifiers. The solids (yes our poop) then gets sucked out of the clarifiers and fills with water and goes through the piping (they look like sprinkles…WARNING, THEY ARE NOT!). This is an overflow from the water filling up in the clarifiers. When the pipes overflow and the water shoots out like a sprinkler, the water then trickles down through the rocks, into a tank. There are bugs that live on the rocks and help to break down the waste that’s in the water.
The digesters, which are a light blue tank, produces methane. Here’s how…
All the sludge gets transferred to the digesters, the methane rises to the top, pressurizes the gas, and sends it back to the engines to burn. Talking about a great way of reusable energy!
Wait there’s more…
The sludge is used for fertilizer! The sludge is dried by air over time, typically about a year. It then becomes a fertilizer and is used in the fields. Pretty cool huh 🤷🏽♀️ For more information click the button below ⬇️
