Chapter 17. Chapter 17: Freshwater Resources
What are some of the ways that our wastewater is treated...?
Guiding Question 17.4
What are some of the ways that our wastewater is treated to make it usable again or safe to release into the environment?
Why You Should Care
One of the ecosystem services (Chapter 5) we depend on is “waste recycling” through wetlands and estuaries. For those ecosystems, wastes are dissolved in freshwater that flows past decomposers and plants that need nutrients locked within. Human sewage treatment uses biomimicry (Chapter 5) to break down the nutrients and remove wastes and other pollutants before releasing it back to the environment.
Modern sewage treatment uses compartments with physical and chemical methods to maximize decomposition. The water that leaves is almost as clean as when it entered the water system.
As water scarcity becomes more common, it is more important that we produce water that is clean enough to drink from wastewater. This goal requires biological methods with constructed wetlands to return water that is cleaner than when it entered the water system.
Test Your Vocabulary
Fill in the blanks below.
Water considered clean enough for human consumption is called .
A is an ecosystem that is permanently or seasonally flooded.
1.
Which of the following phases of traditional sewage treatment is not matched to its description correctly?
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| B. |
| C. |
| D. |
3.
Arcata and Orange County invested in new technologies for cleaning wastewater.
A) Why did it make sense for Orange County to replenish its groundwater by injecting the clean water into the aquifer?
B) Does the Arcata wastewater treatment produce potable water? What would have to be done differently to produce potable water?
B) Arcata does not use UV, peroxide, or chlorine to finally purify the water enough to make it potable. The water is not potable, but if they used any of those technologies during the tertiary treatment, it could be used as potable water.
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