Albany Sewage Treatment Facility

This morning we visited the Albany Sewage Treatment Facility. Ah, nothing but the smell of a sewage treatment plant to start off a great morning. I wasn't too thrilled about the trip, but I was looking forward to it because it will be interesting. I did further research on the facility to learn more about its background. The facility is funded on a federal level, grants, and by New York state. The facility formed in 1968 and the distract wastewater facilities have been in continuous operation ever since. The total construction costed over $71 million. This year marks the 40th year in providing safe wastewater transportation to a population over 200,000 while protecting public health and improving water in the environment.

incinerator burning bio-solids at 16,000 degrees for energy 

Wastewater being cleaned

I took an AP environmental course in high school. One of things we learned in the course was how waste water was treated and purified in facilities. So I was able to understand and recall many of things our tour guide Craig told us while he showed us around. One of the first things that came to my mind when we saw the wastewater was, "has anyone fallen in here." And of course, people have fallen in and I can't imagine how badly the person smells after being in that water. I can't believe they treat about 32 million gallons of water every day! That is so much water being treated in just the Albany district. That also means that 32 million gallons of water is used by people and goes down the drain every single day. That is a LOT of water. I have always been aware of conserving an saving water. I don't leave the sink running, I only use it when I need it. I take quick showers usually and  I don't always flush the toilet after every use. I think if everyone did something like this we can minimize the amount of water going to these sewage treatment plants. I think it would be beneficial because these facilities consume tons of energy just to clean wastewater. I remember when Craig said that their electricity bill is about $55,000 a month and that is so much money. But they cut their energy bill by 40% through burning bio-fuel and using that as a source of energy. I was surprised when Craig said that this facility was the only one in the nation that did this. I think if every facility started using bio-fuel as a source of energy, the amount of electricity consumed will decrease dramatically and this will be better on the environment because some energy here is being conserved and generated from the source instead of using fossil-fuel based energy, which is very pollutant to the environment. Using bio-solid as fuel is an extraordinary step in conserving energy and better protecting the environment.
As we were walking through the facility, I noticed that it's such a long process to purify water but it is worth it because if these facilities weren't here, all that waste water and grease would be wounding up in the Hudson River and pollute it like it was many years ago. It kind of ticked me off when Craig said that restaurants don't use grease traps and instead pour it all down the drain without really knowing what consequences that brings. Also, the smell didn't really bother me. I just kind of ignored it and I couldn't really smell it at all. Craig's humour made the tour much more enjoyable and I'm glad that mean old guy didn't eat any of us.

Wastewater with ammonia