Sewage
the matter which passes through the drains, conduits, or sewers leading away from human habitations singly, or from houses collected into villages, towns, and cities. It is made up of excreted matter, solid and liquid, the water necessary to carry such away, and the waste water of domestic operations; but to these are added the liquid waste products of manufacturing operations, oper and generally much of the surface drainage water of the area in which the conveying sewers are situated. There can be no doubt that the pestilence and plagues which at frequent intervals devastated ancient and mediæval cities were almost invariably caused, and always intensified, by the entire absence of any system for treating or removing excreta and other decaying organic matter; and even yet, notwithstanding the assiduous regard paid to sanitary science in most well-governed towns, many diseases are directly traceable to the noxious influence of decomposing sewage matter.
It is not too much to say that the efficient and economical treatment of towns' sewage is the greatest and most urgent social problem of our times. flourishing city in the peninsula, having a population of 400,000. In 1248 it was taken, after a siege of 18 months, by Ferdinand III. of Castile, and has ever since remained in the hands of the Christians.
SÈVRE (savr), the name of two rivers in France. The Sèvre Nantaise rises in The question presents itself in a twofold aspect: (1) the necessity for the from the neighborhood of human dwelland complete removal of sewage ings, and its disposal in a way the least offensive and injurious to health; (2) the desirability of saving, for agricultural purposes, the rich and essential fertilizing agents which sewage contains. To the sanitary officer the former is the question of greatest moment, to the agri- SEWAGE DISPOSAL culturist the latter; while the mass of tem at present in common use can be the population has an equal interest in both.
The composition of sewage as it passes outward, varies greatly, as regards amount and condition of organic matter it contains, and the season of the yearhot or cold-affects very considerably the activity of chemical action. But at all times sewer gases are given off which are fetid and offensive to smell, containing sulphuretted hydrogen, light carburetted hydrogen, free nitrogen, and carbonic acid. To prevent sewer gases from penetrating into into houses by means of the drains and pipes, and to keep the sewage from saturating the surrounding soil, and from contaminating any water su supply, are objects of prime importance. To accomplish these, the pipes leading from dwellings into main drains and sewers require to be trapped, and the sewers themselves ventilated, drain pipes and tubes made of glazed earthenware or other non-absorbent material must be carefully fitted, and the main sewers made either of pipes of large diameter or of hard bricks bedded in Portland cement. Sewers are properly built in cross section; they should have a uniform gradient, and be as far as possible built free of curves, so that the sewage matter may be carried forward without any tendency to silt or deposit at particular spots. It is also essential that there be ready access to the sewers, as well as to the smaller drains leading into them. a
The entrance of sewer gas into houses is provided against by external ventilation of the pipes and by trapping the pipes either by a syphon arrangement , a midfeather, or a flap trap. The midfeather is a modified kind of syphon, consisting of a trough having an inlet and discharge pipe at the same level on opposite sides, but between them a partition passes down into the water with which the trough is always filled up to the level of the two pipes. Such traps are usually put upon sinks. The flap trap consists simply of a hinged valve which opens outward to allow the escape of sewage, etc., but which closes against the resurge of water or the inward pressure of gases.
Modified forms of these varieties are numerous.
SEWAGE DISPOSAL. The problem of the disposal of sewage becomes one of immense importance in all thickly populated districts. In the country, a properly constructed cesspool in favorable soil forms a simple and satisfactory means of disposing of domestic waste, but in cities the cesspool becomes utterly inadequate and some means of removing sewage wholesale has to be devised. No sys- SEWAGE DISPOSAL considered perfect. Sewage contains much material of value, and its destruction involves a great economic waste. Owing to the large quantities of humus and nitrogenous matter which it contains, its fertilizing properties are great, and there are in it considerable amounts of grease and fat which only need extracting and purifying to find industrial application. At the present time, however, most cities are concerned only with the disposal of the sewage in an economical, sanitary and inoffensive manner and do not concern themselves with the recovery of by-products. There are several methods of sewage disposal, but one feature, common to them all, is the sewer. These sewers almost invariably carry off rain as well as domestic and industrial sewage, but in some cities an arrangement is made by which the ordinary rainfall goes into the sewer, while heavier rains are diverted into special channels.
The purpose of this is to avoid having to deal with large volumes of dilute sewage, a point which is of importance in some systems, as will be seen later.
It is clear that the sewer does not solve the problem of sewage disposal. It removes the sewage from the city, but sooner or later there must arise the problem of dealing with the effluent from the sewer. In cities located near the coast, it is common to lead the sewer into the sea to a point well beyond low tide. Those with a river running through, or near, them, frequently turn their sewage into the river-a practice with many obvious objections and dangers. Inland towns far from rivers or large bodies of water have no such easy solution of their difficulties.
So-called "sewage farms" are frequently resorted to. The sewage is treated in settling tanks with lime, or with mixtures of lime and sulphate of iron or alumina, by which means the solids are precipitated, leaving the supernatant liquor comparatively pure. The sludge is spread over the land which is cultivated. This system comes nearest to Nature's method of purification, and it has the good feature of utilizing the fertilizing properties of the sewage. It is, however, seldom entirely inoffensive. Sometimes the sludge is treated in filter presses, and the comparatively dry cake dug into the earth or even burned. The septic tank treatment is one which has met with success in some cases. The sewage is caused to flow into tanks where it receives successive treatment with anaërobic and aërobic bacteria. Theoretically, solid matter should become liquified and the final effluent be harmless and inoffensive.
Many industrial effluents, however, contain matter which poisons the bacteria, 1 SEWARD when, of course, the whole system breaks down.