Sewer\sewerage outflow\outfall\discharge pipes

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A ocean outfall pipe in Cape May, New Jersey, United States. The Ocean City pipes were exposed after the sand was removed by severe storm. Author: Michael Medina-Latorre, FEMA.

Old sewage outfall pipe, Stiffkey, UK. Attribution: Old sewage outfall pipe, Stiffkey by Evelyn Simak. — Old sewage outfall pipe, Stiffkey, Norfolk UK. Attribution: Old sewage outfall pipe, Stiffkey by Evelyn Simak.

A shellfish of the kind known as a scallops. Author: George Chernilevsky. — A shellfish of the kind known as a **scallops**. Author: George Chernilevsky.

Overview[]

For the more contemporary sewer system for carrying waste, see: sanitary sewer. For the street runoff drainage system, see: storm drain.

They are is a form of culvert, drain or sewer pipe that pours treated or untreated sewage in to a major river, large lake or the sea just beyond the coastline. This is known as 'river drainage outflow', 'lake outflow' and 'marine outflow' respectively.

The idea[]

In to rivers and lakes[]

A sewage outflow\discharge pipe is a fairly cheap and efficacy, but environmentally dirty and ugly solution that produces a significant amount of ground and water pollution which means the larger varieties of them can't be put near farmland, water sources or too close to costal beaches. They can discharges municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, stormwater, combined sewer overflows (CSOs), cooling water, farm runoff, treated sewerage, untreated sewerage and\or brine effluents from water desalination plants to the sea, lakes or rivers.

Lakes and rivers have been discharged in to by drainage pipes and gullies since at least Roman times.

Brighton's then innovative sewers discharged a short way in to the sea 1874. The major London sewerage projects that lasted from 1859 and 1865 set up major discharge pipes along the banks of the River Thames in London.

America first made the even longer ocean going ones starting in 1910.

Some sewage was dumped in the Roden River ever since the mid 1970s and the GDR stopped this under a 1984 law preventing major organic waste pollution in the GDR's river. The UK recommenced with mass dumping as of the mid 2010. The UK recommenced mas river mass dumping as of the mid 2010s.

A combined sewage outlet\outflow is a type of combined sewer outlet that also acts as a pressure vent for sewers and a way of venting surplus rainwater in to the environment via rivers, lakes and sometimes the sea to.

Into rivers and lakes[]

A combined sewer is a sewage collection system of pipes and tunnels designed to simultaneously collect surface runoff and sewage water in a shared system. This type of gravity sewer design is no longer used in almost every instance worldwide when constructing new sewer systems. Modern-day sewer designs exclude surface runoff from sanitary sewers, but many older cities and towns continue to operate previously constructed combined sewer systems.

Combined sewers can cause serious water pollution problems during combined sewer overflow (CSO) events when combined sewage and surface runoff flows exceed the capacity of the sewage treatment plant, or of the maximum flow rate of the system which transmits the combined sources. In instances where exceptionally high surface runoff occurs (such as large rainstorms), the load on individual tributary branches of the sewer system may cause a back-up to a point where raw sewage flows out of input sources such a toilets, causing inhabited buildings to be flooded with a toxic sewage-runoff mixture, incurring massive financial burdens for cleanup and repair. When combined sewer systems experience these higher than normal throughputs, relief systems cause discharges containing human and industrial waste to flow into rivers, streams, or other bodies of water. Such events frequently cause both negative environmental and lifestyle consequences, including beach closures, contaminated shellfish unsafe for consumption, and contamination of drinking water sources, rendering them temporarily unsafe for drinking and requiring boiling before uses such as bathing or washing dishes.

Into the sea[]

A marine outfall is a pipeline or tunnel that discharges municipal or industrial wastewater, stormwater, combined sewer overflows, cooling water, or brine effluents from water desalination plants to the sea. Usually they discharge under the sea's surface (submarine outfall). In the case of municipal wastewater, effluent is often being discharged after having undergone no or only primary treatment, with the intention of using the assimilative capacity of the sea for further treatment. Submarine outfalls are common throughout the world and probably number in the thousands. More than 200 outfalls alone have been listed in a single international database maintained by the Institute for Hydromechanics at Karlsruhe University for the International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research (IAHR) / International Water Association (IWA) Committee on Marine Outfall Systems.

The world's first marine outfall was built in Santa Monica, United States, in 1910. In Latin America and the Caribbean there were 134 outfalls with more than 500 m length in 2006 for wastewater disposal alone, according to a survey by the Pan American Centre for Sanitary Engineering and Environmental Sciences (CEPIS) of PAHO. According to the survey, the largest number of municipal wastewater outfalls in the region exist in Venezuela (39), Chile (39) and Brazil (22). The world's largest marine outfall stems from the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant located in Boston, United States. Currently, Boston has approximately 235 miles of combined sewers and 37 active CSO outfalls. Lots of outfalls are simply known by a public used name, e.g. Boston Outfall. The UK recommenced with sea dumping as of the mid 2010s.

Advantages[]

According to the Australian engineer Sharon Beder the main advantages of marine outfalls for the discharge of wastewater are:

The natural dilution and dispersion of organic matter, pathogens and other pollutants
The ability to keep the sewage field submerged because of the depth at which the sewage is being released the greater die-off rate of pathogens due to the greater distance they will have to travel to shore.

They also tend to be less expensive than advanced wastewater treatment plants, using the natural assimilative capacity of the sea instead of energy-intensive treatment processes in a plant. For example, preliminary treatment of wastewater is sufficient with an effective outfall and diffuser. The costs of preliminary treatment are about one tenth that of secondary treatment. Preliminary treatment also requires much less land than advanced wastewater treatment.

Disadvantages[]

Marine outfalls for partially treated or untreated wastewater remain controversial. Still according to Sharon Beder, the design calculation and computer models for pollution modeling have been criticized, arguing that dilution has been overemphasized and that other mechanisms work in the opposite direction, such as bio-accumulation of toxins, sedimentation of sludge particles and agglomeration of sewage particles with grease. Accumulative mechanisms include slick formation, windrow formation, flocculate formation and agglomerated formation. Grease or wax can interfere with dispersion, so that bacteria and viruses could be carried to remote locations where the concentration of bacterial predators would be low and the die-off rate much lower.

Technology[]

Outfalls vary in diameter from as narrow as 15 cm to as wide as 8 m; the widest registered outfall in the world with 8 m diameter is located in Navia (Spain) for the discharge of industrial wastewater. Outfalls vary in length from 50 m to 55 km, the longest registered outfalls being the Boston outfall with a length of 16 km and an industrial outfall in Ankleshwar (India) with a length of 55 km. The depth of the deepest point of an outfall varies from 3 m to up to 60 m, the deepest registered outfall being located in Macuto, Vargas (Venezuela) for the discharge of untreated municipal wastewater.

Outfall materials include polyethylene, stainless steel, carbon steel, glass-reinforced plastic, reinforced concrete, cast iron or tunnels through rock. Common installation methods for pipelines are float and sink, bottom pull and top pull.

Environmental cost[]

The UK's beaches and rivers were often dangerously unclean. Totaly untreated sewerage discharges in to lakes and rivers was banned by the start of WW2 and for discharge in to the sea by the late 1950s. Pipes that went to rivers and lakes were obliged to discharge only non toxic waste in the mid 1950s, with septic tanks being banned from discharging in to them in 2014. The EU made the UK seriously lengthen the ocean going pipes and obliged them to discharge only non toxic waste in the early 1990s, but the UK ignored the EU ruling and continued as before. Dumping raw sewerage in to rivers, which had never stopped, was re-legalised in the late 2010s.

America enacted similar laws on the oceanic pipes during the 1980s and on pipes that went to rivers in 1972, 1974 and 1975, but the latter has often not been fulfilled for minor and sometimes medium sized pipes due to the cost of it.

The French, Danish, Belgians, Germans and Dutch had already done most of these improvements by the late 1970s and had finished it of by the early 1990s.

Later types Western and Middle Eastern pipes would be regulated by tougher legislation on there construction and the older pipes would mostly be removed by the late 1990s.

Sewage effluent accounted for 60%-70% of the total phosphorus entering rivers of England and Wales in 2010! Many of the UK's beaches were ruined these toxic pipes by 2020!

Politics[]

Ecologists and Green Politics opposes there use due to issues with wastewater lagoon algae and pond algae control issues in ponds and rivers, as well as often toxic algae blooms on the coastline, and toxic residues in the water.

Monetarism supports it due to it's cheap and effective method of waste disposal.

Controversies[]

In the 1960s the city of Sydney decided to build ocean sewage outfalls to discharge partially treated sewage 2–4 km offshore at a cost of US$ 300 million. In the late 1980s, however, the government promised to upgrade the coastal treatment plants so that sewage would be treated to at least secondary treatment standards before discharge into the ocean.

The submarine outfall in Cartagena, Colombia was financed with a loan by the World Bank. It was subsequently challenged by residents claiming that the wastewater caused damage to the marine environment and to fisheries. The case was taken up by the World Bank's Inspection Panel, which contracted two independent three-dimensional modeling efforts in 2006. Both "confirmed that the 2.85km long submarine outfall (was) adequate."

One was pouring combined wastewater and sewage in to the River Wharf, near Ilkley, in the UK for 90 days in 2019, despite many of those days being ran free!

Types of sewage pipes[]

In New York City[]

Orangeburg pipe (wood fibres pressed together at a high pressure as it was bound with a special water-resistant adhesive, then impregnated with liquefied coal tar pitch or regular pitch, a form of hot tar) in the 1860s and the 1970s.
Cast iron in 1910s and 1920s.
Vitrified clay (mostly inside a cement sleeve) between the 1920s and 1970s.
Cement between the 1920s and 1970s.
Plastic (PVC and ABS) since 1970s.

The USA as a whole[]

Vitrified clay before the 1950s (bedded in sand and pea gravel).
Orangeburg pipe before the 1950s.
Cast iron before the 1960s.
Steel before the 1960s.
Copper- N\A.
PVC\ABS plastic since the mid 1970s.
PXE plastic since the millennium.

London and Southern England[]

Hollowed out wood before the 1870s
Curved bricks between the 1850s and 1870s
Vitrified clay between the 1870s and 1970s (bedded in sand and pea gravel).
Lead between the 1870s and 1960s
Orangeburg pipe before the 1970s.
Cast iron between the 1910s and 1960s.
Steel between the 1960s and 1970s.
Cement (bedded in sand and pea gravel) between the 1920s and 1970s.
Copper- N\A
PVC\ABS plastic since the mid 1970s.

Examples[]

Some working and non-working one could be found at (as of the late 2010s):

Short range surface and submarine ocean type:

Waterloo, Merseyside, UK.
Portslade beach, Brighton, UK.
Stiffkey, Norfolk, England, UK,
Rock-a-Nore sewerage outflow, Hastings, UK.
Guernsey, Channel Islands, UK
Fleetwood, liverpool
Sully Beach, Vale of Glamorgan SE Wales UK
Teignmouth, Devon, England.
The Island of Seil, Scotland, UK.
Ryde, Isle of Wight, UK.
Kerch, Russia.
Around Malé, the Maldives.
Pattaya Beach, Thailand.
Burrard Inlet, Vancouver, Canada.
Hokitika sewage ponds, Hokitika Beach, NZ.

Long range submarine ocean type.:

Fourth Avenue North in Myrtle Beach, SC, USA.

Other Submarine outfalls exist, existed or have been considered in the following locations, among many others:

Casablanca (Morocco).
Cape Town (South Africa).
Manila Bay (Philippines).
Mumbai (India).
Mutwall ( Sri Lanka).
Wellawaththa (Sri Lanka).
Lunawa (Sri Lanka).
Anglesea, Victoria, Australia.
Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
Sydney, Australia.
Barcelona, Spain
Costa do Estoril (Portugal)
Marmara Sea near Istanbul (Turkey)
San Sebastián (Spain)
Split (Croatia)
Thames Estuary downstream of London (UK)
Edinburgh, Scotland.
Honolulu (USA)
New York Bight (USA)
Southern California Bight (USA).
Victoria, British Columbia, (Canada)
Santa Monica, United States (world's first)
Boston, United States (world's largest)
Latin America and the Caribbean
Cartagena, Colombia
Ipanema Beach beach from Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). This outfall, built in 1975, discharges untreated wastewater through a pipe with a diameter of 2.4m and a length of 4,775m at a depth of 27m.
Sosua (Dominican Republic).

River type:

The Ganges River at Varanasi, India.
Springfield's Memorial Bridge on the Connecticut River, USA.
Nabuyonga River in Namatala slum, (one of Mbale’s biggest slums), Mbale municipality, Uganda.
Bogata River in Bogata.
Redwood Meadows on the Elbow River, near Calgary, Alberta (about 500 meters from the place the city draws its water supply from).
At the confluence of the Seine and Red rivers in St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada.

Lake type:

Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Combined sewage outlets:

The River Wharf, Ilkley, UK
The River Cherwell, Banbury, UK

Also see[]

Environmental disasters