How and where does sewage go?

Interesting. During the water charge protests, it didn't seem to occur to most objectors that part of the proposed charges would be used to process their effluent. The arguments were all about how water falls free from the sky, we already pay for it etc. Would have been great if non payers of a water charge had their drains blocked up and had to deal with their own sh*t.

Not to say that Irish Water are doing a perfect job, but the situation left to them by years of underfunding and bitwise management by councils will take years to correct.

P.s. as a rural dweller I know the cost of supplying my own water and waste treatment.

Every town and village, if it has a public sewer has a treatment plant. Like electricity, every house is connected to the network. It is much more expensive to treat your waste yourself than make the connection.

Waste flows downhill to pumping stations where it is raised to flow down hill again. Waste is treated and the water is discharged to a watercourse usually.

Great question! Where sewage goes and how it’s treated depends a bit on where you live, but here’s a general breakdown of the process:

🛁 What is Sewage?

Sewage is basically used water from homes, businesses, and industries. It includes water from:

• Toilets 🚽
• Sinks and showers 🚿
• Washing machines 🧺
• Industrial processes 🏭

It can contain human waste, food scraps, oils, soaps, and chemicals.

🚇 Where Does Sewage Go?

1. Into the Sewer System

When you flush or drain something, it flows through your home’s plumbing into a municipal sewer system — a network of underground pipes that carry sewage to a treatment facility. There are two main types:

• Sanitary sewers: Just for sewage.
• Combined sewers: Carry both sewage and stormwater (can cause overflow problems in heavy rain).

🧪 What Happens at the Wastewater Treatment Plant?

This is where the magic (and science) happens to clean that dirty water before it returns to nature.

Step 1: Preliminary Treatment

• Removes large objects (sticks, trash, etc.) using screens.
• Grit chambers let sand and gravel settle out.

Step 2: Primary Treatment

• Sewage sits in big tanks so solids can sink to the bottom (forming “sludge”), and oils/grease float to the top and are skimmed off.

Step 3: Secondary Treatment

• Bacteria and microorganisms are added to break down organic matter.
• This is usually done in aeration tanks and clarifiers.

Step 4: Tertiary Treatment (Optional)

• Further filtration and disinfection (e.g., UV light or chlorine) to remove remaining contaminants, nutrients (like nitrogen and phosphorus), or pathogens.

🌊 Where Does Treated Sewage Go?

After treatment, the cleaned water (called effluent) is:

• Released into rivers, lakes, or the ocean.
• Sometimes reused for irrigation, industrial processes, or even drinking water (in high-tech systems).

💩 What Happens to the Solids (Sludge)?

• Treated and turned into biosolids.
• These can be:
  • Used as fertilizer
  • Incinerated
  • Sent to landfills
  • Processed for energy (e.g., biogas)

If you live in a rural area without a centralized sewer system, homes might use septic systems instead. These treat sewage on-site using a tank and a drain field.

Want to know how this works specifically in your city or country? I can look that up for you too.

And yet you persist!!!!

I often wondered this when I was in the jacks of say Kehoes or other old Dublin pubs where the toilets seem to be deep deep underground.

Had my septic tank emptied yesterday

More AI generated content. You could at least acknowledge the source.