Sanitary sewer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about modern sewer systems designed to carry sanitary waste to a treatment facility while excluding storm runoff. For early sewers designed to convey sanitary and industrial wastes with storm water, see combined sewer. For a separate drainage system designed to carry runoff from urban streets, see storm drain.
PVC Sanitary Sewer Installation. Sanitary sewers are sized to carry the amount of sewage generated by the collection area. Sanitary sewers are much smaller than combined sewers designed to also carry surface runoff. The few sanitary sewers large enough for a man to stand erect typically carry flows that would sweep him off his feet. A manhole cover for a sanitary sewer access point. View loo ing down into an open manhole showing two converging sanitary sewer lines. The larger line enters from the right and changes direction within the manhole to e!it from the top of the photo. A smaller line enters from the bottom of the photo under the access steps. The concrete floor of the manhole has channels to minimize accumulation of solids. Interior photo of a large sanitary sewer from an access manhole.

A sanitary sewer "also called a foul sewer# is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater. The $system of sewers$ is called sewerage.
Contents %hide&

' (istory ) *omenclature + ,aintenance - Simplified sewers . See also / 0eferences 1 2!ternal lin s

(istory%edit&
Main article: Combined sewer Animal feces were plentiful on city streets while animal3powered transport moved people and goods. Accumulations of animal feces encouraged dumping chamber pots into streets where night soil collection was impractical.%'& The earliest sewers were designed to carry street runoff away from inhabited areas and into surface waterways without treatment. Indoor plumbing was often drained to combined sewers through the '4th century. Sewage treatment facilities built for combined sewers become ineffective during periods of precipitationor snowmelt.%)& Cities were built with sanitary sewers operated separately and independently of storm drains carrying the runoff of rainafter wagons and carriages powered

by internal combustion engines reduced the advantages of treating street runoff5 but many cities built prior to the twentieth century have not replaced combined sewer infrastructure.%+&

*omenclature%edit&
In the developed world6 sewers are usually pipelines that begin with connecting pipes from buildings to one or more levels of larger underground trun mains6 which transport the sewage to sewage treatment facilities. Vertical pipes6 called manholes6 connect the mains to the surface. The manholes are used for access to the sewer pipes for inspection and maintenance6 and as a means to vent sewer gases. They also facilitate vertical and horizontal angles in otherwise straight pipelines. Sewers are generally gravity powered6 thoughpumps may be used if necessary. The most commonly used sanitary pipe is S703+. "standard dimension ratio#6 with smaller sized laterals interconnected within a larger sized main.%citation needed& Pipes conveying sewage from an individual building to a common gravity sewer line are called laterals. 8ranch sewers typically run under streets receiving laterals from buildings along that street and discharge by gravity into trun sewers at manholes. 9arger cities may have sewers called interceptors receiving flow from multiple trun sewers. A lift station is a gravity sewer sump with a pump to lift accumulated sewage to a higher elevation. The pump may discharge to another gravity sewer at that location or may discharge through a pressurized force main to some distant location.%-&

,aintenance%edit&
All sewers deteriorate with age6 but infiltration:inflow is a problem uni;ue to sanitary sewers6 since both combined sewers and storm drains are sized to carry these contributions. (olding infiltration to acceptable levels re;uires a higher standard of maintenance than necessary for structural integrity considerations of combined sewers.%.& A comprehensive construction inspection program is re;uired to prevent inappropriate connection of cellar6 yard6 and roof drains to sanitary sewers.%/& The probability of inappropriate connections is higher where combined sewers and sanitary sewers are found in close pro!imity6 because construction personnel may not recognize the difference. ,any older cities still use combined sewers while ad<acent suburbs were built with separate sanitary sewers. =or decades6 when sanitary sewer pipes got crac s or other damage6 the only choice was the e!pensive operation of digging up the damaged pipe and replacing it6 usually re;uiring the street to be repaved afterwards. In the mid3'4.>s a unit was invented where two units at each end with a special cement mi!ture in between was pulled from one manhole cover to the ne!t6 coating the pipe with the cement under high pressure which then dried at a fast rate6 sealing all crac s and brea s in the pipe. %1&

Simplified sewers%edit&
See also: Simplified sewerage Simplified sanitary sewers consist of small3diameter pipes "typically '>> mm or about - inches#6 often laid at fairly flat gradients "' in )>>#. The investment cost for sanitary sewers can be about half the costs of conventional sewers. (owever6 the re;uirements for operation and maintenance are usually higher. Simplified sewers are most common in 8razil and are also used in a number of other developing countries.

See also%edit&
8lac water "waste# 8uchan trap

Combined sewer Sanitary sewer overflow "SS?# Sewage treatment Stormwater @ater pollution Composting toilet