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View Full Version : Think your shit stinks?


SHOFEAR
Mar 24, 2007, 4:21 AM
Actually it doesn't.

Here's a photo tour of Edmonton's Gold Bar Wastewater treatment plant, and a brief lesson in wastewater treatment.

I didn't take any photos of the preliminary stage, I think my buddy is sending me his so i'll post them later. It consists of various trash racks and filters to remove non-organic stuff, basically a bunch of condoms and sand. Many of Edmonton's older areas still have combined storm and wastewater, thus a large amount of debris has to be screened

here's a sideways view of the entire complex.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7323/p00077sy5.jpg

miles and miles of underground tunnels.
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/4674/p00060pj5.jpg
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/6520/p00061ja2.jpg
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/4377/p00062zs6.jpg

This is the primary phases. removing settleable solids.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9158/p00074wd0.jpg
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/7058/p00075hd8.jpg

these are ponds that allow stuff to flocculate and sink then the water is aerated to cause other particles to sink. This organic stuff is then pumped into tanks to form various gases wich are burned to heat the complex. Plans are underway to build a treatment plant to treat the gas so it's burns more efficiently so it can power the plant. Currently the gas is pretty dirty so stuff builds up within the pumps and furnaces.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7301/p00063hv0.jpg
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/7899/p00064ry5.jpg

A life preserver incase you fall in!
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/9370/p00065bq6.jpg
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3136/p00066cf6.jpg
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/8383/p00067fy9.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5781/p00068ob3.jpgThis is the third phase that treats the water with UV to destroy micro organism DNA before it is returned into the river.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1378/p00070lk3.jpg
An example of the lights
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5874/p00071sv9.jpg
See the UV light
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3833/p00072bq6.jpg
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7129/p00073gw8.jpg


Our bus driver had a thing for pigs. I wanted bacon when I got home.
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/3512/p00078cw2.jpg

m0nkyman
Mar 24, 2007, 4:23 AM
Did it cost 1.2 Billion? (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=127999)

Xelebes
Mar 24, 2007, 5:59 AM
My brother has done work on this plant. And I have a friend who mans a honeywagon.

itom 987
Mar 24, 2007, 7:03 AM
I think I see my shit in there, somewhere...

Bokimon
Mar 24, 2007, 8:01 AM
I went on a tour of a sewage treatment plant in Calgary at the Bonnybrook site near the freight yards, and boy it was not a plesant experience.
The worst part is when my class had to enter and go through the solids building where all the shit get gathered up and mushed and transported on conveyor belts.

My GOD It stank so bad! I had to hold my breath to walk from the entry to the exit.
All those blackwater stuff, so grosss. I saw how the circular tanks, Primary Clarifyers? skimmed the shit and let the water and solids separate.
The UV chamber in Calgary is the same as that one in Edmonton.

And life preserver, damm you would not want to fall into one of those pools, Unless you are Johnny KNoxville. :)

dubiousmike
Mar 24, 2007, 12:25 PM
^^^

hehehehe, "solids building", hehehehe

CorporateWhore
Mar 24, 2007, 4:24 PM
I love that they have a machine called Digestor. sounds like some sort of carnivorous trash monster.

SHOFEAR
Mar 24, 2007, 5:14 PM
The worst part is when my class had to enter and go through the solids building where all the shit get gathered up and mushed and transported on conveyor belts.

I'll fully agree with that. Though the smell was the worst part it was completly tolerable. Due to the proximity to houses they have to reduce the small as much as possible. All the air that enters from the headspace in the pipes is sent off for treatment so you don't get that blast of air thats been within the sewer for hours.

Xelebes
Mar 24, 2007, 9:59 PM
I love that they have a machine called Digestor. sounds like some sort of carnivorous trash monster.

Like those mother strogg digestors.

widedetox
Mar 29, 2007, 3:13 AM
In the summer time, I bike past it, nearly everyday, over the past 6 years, the smell is puts out in total has improved drastically, it also has gotten alot quieter too... well from walking around it, it has....

I went on the tour of it few years back, haven't been in since, but I don't imagine the smell in some of the areas/buildings has gotten much better :)

Greco Roman
Mar 29, 2007, 3:58 AM
Edmonton has one of the best world-class waste treatment facilities in NA. Now we just need to get the rest of the country on par. :cool:

basilbrush
Mar 30, 2007, 4:31 AM
queu the "we've got our sh1t together!" comments.