Sanitary sewer overflow: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:43, 7 October 2006

Revision as of 08:35, 7 October 2006

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[[Image:Wonga wetlands sewage plant.jpg|thumb|250px|left|[[Sewage treatment plant]] used to create the Wonga Wetlands, [[Australia]]]]

Since medieval times rulers have been aware of the impact of raw sewage improperly discharged to the environment. Before treatment systems existed in 16th century [[England]], [[King Henry VIII]] decreed that sewage troughs should be kept flowing so that they would not stagnate in [[London]] prior to reaching the [[River Thames]]. It was not until the 19th century when America and parts of Europe developed wastewater treatment, that the concept of SSO materialized; however, communities were merely happy to have wastewater treatment systems, and did not complain greatly about overflows until the dawning of 20th century environmental awareness in the 1960s. At that time the [[USA]] began recognizing locations and frequencies of SSOs in a systematic way. Local governments heard complaints of citizens, beach closure protocols were systematised and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began detailed engineering analyses for major cities across the country. After passage of the U.S. [[Clean Water Act]], the 1980s saw spending of billions of dollars on system upgrading. In the 1990s the [[UKJapan]], the [[JapanUK]] and a number of other European countries began earnest investigation of some of their countries’ overflow issues.

==Magnitude of the problem==