How Do Sewer Systems Work?

Sewer systems wonders of modern infrastructure. Back in the olden days, cities had open sewers where waste flowed through open canals on city streets. Today, we're much more civilized: we transport our waste underground in large pipes.

Sewer systems are essential to modern plumbing. Every time you flush a toilet, use a sink, or take a shower, you create liquid waste of varying chemical makeups that has to be transported and treated. You could just flush it into a septic tank, but these tanks require maintenance and come with a host of other issues when integrated en masse for modern cities. We have to manage our waste because it stinks, it contains deadly bacteria, and it has dangerous chemicals that could affect the environment.

You probably know that wastewater gets treated at a wastewater treatment plant, but let's take a look at how it gets there: sewer systems.

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Music:

[richdiscoveries]

This is what I love about YouTube. Im in my basement randomly looking at the sewer pipe thinking I'm on the side of a hill, and I believe the sewage treatment plant is on the other side of this hill. And even if it's not, not every sewage treatment plant could possibly be on the lowest portion of buildable land.
They couldn't possibly dig all of our sewage through the middle of this mountain. How would it Go uphill to get over?
Not even sure why I was thinking about that, I am no engineer, just an average mechanic. But whatever, I guess our minds are always going LOL but anyways this was exactly the video I was looking for, thank you very much

[jimthompson]

Don’t flush They cause the majority of the problems that sewer maintenance workers have to deal with; plugged sewers & ragged pumps.

[steveclark]

Thanks for delivering such an exciting video. I hope to see more great videos like this in the future and keep the good work going on.

[itsjustfaith]

wow, you saved my life. needed to know this stuff in short time and found your video

[pebbles]

Best explanation I've listened to yet.
One guy I listened to just talked about stuff that had nothing to do with his subject.

[accountedknots]

You deserve so many more subs dude. Liked, shared and subscribed. very high quality and detailed content

[Hydrocarbon]

Learned something new in Covid-19X era.

[VonTeradoc]

This is a nice primer for how sanitary sewer works, only part that grinds my gears as a stormwater nerd.... you showed storm drainage pipes & inlets a few times but the topic is highly pointed to sanitary sewer that is most the time completely separate systems.

[HarrisWaterandSewer]

Live the video! Clear, concise and to the point! Thank you for sharing

[lukevop]

Love these videos! The animation is great! Hope to see more like this soon!

[Yojax]

Awesome vid. My question is, how did this all get installed in ancient cities like those in Europe where the infrastructure hasn’t changed much in a very long time? (Venice, for example)

[MystiqWisdom]

Thanks for clarifying that the travelling poop emoji represents poop.

[someone.]

"When you don't have to deal with your neighbor's Shhiii- waste"

[thomasgary]

My wife and I were having a very productive conversation about what happens to our dookie after we flush the commode. Well what do you know, there are several videos about sewage and 💩💩💩 and where the little fellas end up at. Very informative video.

[samermagdy]

i was watching you expecting a 10 million subs or something but you will get there just keep the really good work .

[jsamc]

I contributed to this video. Thank you very much !

[EMRT]

I was a city electrician and we had 6 lift stations. Always made sure to show the new guy's the brown trout races or scupper trout if you prefer.

[wassunoor]

Good presentation, animation and information.
Any Civil engineers here ..thumps up folks he is one of us..

[dhare]

I never flush the wipes. They don't dissolve fast enough and cause the system to back up. It's best to just throw them away. Thanks for this video.

[musicisbrilliant]

Wow. I was ignorant about much of this. Thank you.