Is there anybody who moves raw sewage about on trains?
Garbage trains yeah, sewage trains not sure. The local sewage treatment plant does have rail service though. The service is mainly for delivering materials used in the treatment process. The water, once treated, is discharged back to the river, but the solids have to go somewhere. Maybe they are shipped out.
Sewage plants are like giant septic tanks, the solids don’t go anywhere, bacteria is used to degrade them into safe materials, which are then treated by chemicals and the now purer waste is dumped back into the river or oceans.
Sewage plants would be a Full in-Empty out Train operation. Trains would arrive with the chemicals and other needs oft he plants and leave with empty cars, one of those things the railroads hate, if they’re not full, they’re not making money.
Refined raw sewage sludge(yes)…Sewage from New Jersey is dried and pelletized into little 1/4" balls, loaded into grey open-top 40 ft. containers. They are shipped COFC to Eastern Colorado (Lamar, Holly & Grote on BNSF/ATSF, Cheyene Wells on UP, Burlington on Kyle & Imperrial CO on BNSF/BN) transfered to old steel grain elevators (notably Grote, CO…That corrugated steel elevator blew-up twice in dust/methane explosions in 1997 and 2002 with the roof blown across nearby US-50 at least once)…The sludge pellets are then spread in the fields (wheat/corn/onions/alfalfa & truck farms)during the times crops are not coming out of the ground (Fallow)…
Sure you want those onion rings for lunch now?[;)][dinner][(-D]
http://www.nebiosolids.org/qanda.html
If it’s blessed by a priest it could be holy crap!!
Around here we occasionally see sewage hauled by trucks from major facilities that are either having system problems or are too big for a septic system, but no where near a sewer line (we had a prison like that for a while).
The amount of raw sewage generated by a municipality of any size would probably require a tank train daily, at least. It would be quite the proposition.
Steamerfan is right about the sewage. The company that I work for manufactures waste water treatment equipment.
Our fabricator for the steel tanks are located in Jeffersonville IN, just 1 mile from the L&I yards. We haul our tanks by truck though.
The best thing about a sewage treatment plant is that it actually speeds the process along to get rid of the solids and wastes. As for the solids that Big Boy mentioned they are removed by the bacteria that Steamerfan mentioned.
We have a system in place now that at the end of the process the water being discharged from the tank is just as clean as the water from your faucet.
I know this was off topic, but hope to be informative as well.
Brian (KY)
Ahem, or TAA-DAA.
On the Illinois Central, in the early 1970’s, I became the Marketing Department’s project manager for what became a couple of hundred 40 or 80 tank car trainloads of sewage sludge ship from the storage lagoons of the Chicago Metropolitan Sanitary District to farmlands and surface mining property in southern Illinois.
After determining that transporting liquid sludge to use for soil enrichment was a cost effective way of getting rid of the stuff, the MSD purchased extensive mined over property down along the Illinois River and transported the sludge by barge. I don’t know for sure, but that program may continue. It was far less expensive than drieing, which is what Milwaukee does to produce Milorganite.
Jay
Jay, is that the same Milorganite Dad used on our lawn back in the 50’s?
The thing is that bacteria can only do so much, and eventually you have to clear the decks and start over. MC gives a good exampne of what has to happen at a large facility.
This discussion reminds me that I have to call and have my septic tank pumped. The county requires it every 3 years, or they will decommission your system, which I’m sure would be a real pain to have reinstated.
During my high school days (1957) our chemistrey class took a tour of the sewage treatment plant in Steubenville Ohio. One of their end products was a fertilizer called “Electra”, a grey powder, which they bagged and sold. I have never seen the product in a garden supply store. Even though the plant was adjacent to the Pennsylvania tracks along the Ohio river they did not ship by rail due to the small quantity being produced.
Mookie-That is the stuff.
Here they just take the sludge and spread it out in an area in the desert and it dries and decomposes.
My uncle runs a wastewater treatment plant, and the sludge is spread on local fields from a dumptruck.
Adrianspeeder
That would give new meaning to dedicated service.
The only sewage plant that I know of around here is right by the railroad track (UP’s Desoto Sub.) There is absolutly no siding there and I’m sure that this particular plant does not ship out solid waste by train.
Hello Mudchicken
Interesting article. But where did you learn that the sewage was coming from New Jersey? I’d like to learn more.
Thanks
Jim
I didn’t see a specific mention of New Jersey in the link. It sounds like a number of New England states are involved. Perhaps they’re stockpiling and shipping from there. The farmers must be co-oping and buying this stuff by the ton.
I guess it depends on the type of crop being grown, and the level of treatment of the sludge as to whether it can be spread directly to the field.
In MC’s link there was a discussion of “pathogen reduction”. Pathogens are the things that make us sick. This is why you don’t want to eat raw vegetables in under developed countries such as Mexico.
In this country we have much stronger regulations. I’m sure that whatever method your uncle’s plant uses they comply with all such regulations. What are the local farmers growing?
Heat digested sludge and dried sludge probably have no more bacterial pathogens than the soil on which it is spread.
Here is a little bit about how it works. After the scum, trash and grit is removed, the waste stream is pumped into ponds with a very thriving bacteria population. With air for oxygen pumped into the bottom of the ponds, the bacteria starts to eat the organic material. After this process starts, the waste water is transfered to settlement ponds where where the bacteria/organic material or sludge settles to the bottom.
After settlementis complete, the sludge is scraped off the bottom and the remaining waste water is either sent to a facility for further treatment or to the environment. The sludge is pumped to warm tanks, where the bacteria finish consuming the organics and die. (The by product of this process is methane, which is often used as a fuel to heat the digesters and, in at least some cases, as a fuel to generate electricity to run the treatment plant.)
Because of the structure of the dead bacteria cells, sludge does not readily dry. Some of the Chicago MSD sludge storage ponds had been full for decades, and still had high enough water content to have a fluid state. Three approaches prevail for final disposal. In areas of no or low rainfall, the sludge will dry out in the storage ponds.
Dried sludge product, such as Milorganite, has gone through a rather expensive oven drying process. Liquid sludge is spread on fields as a nitrogen source and soil conditioner, where growing plants cause the final breakdown of the sludge.
At one time costal cities, for sure New York, dumped sludge into the ocean, off the continental shelf. This may have been stopped, because this method does cause serious environmental problems.
So, wet or dried, sludge might be shipped by train. Don’t worry about the destination. If accepted use as a soil conditioner was bad for human health, there would be many a sick golfer.
Ja