Over the past fifteen years, Jon Schladweiler, the Historian of the Arizona Water Association, has researched and collected materials related to the history of sewage conveyance systems. Many of these have been displayed in a traveling exhibit entitled "The Collection Systems Historical Photo and Artifacts Display." The overall collection of sewer history materials covers the era from approximately 3500 BCE through the 1930s CE.

The purpose of this website is to house this dynamic collection of materials about the evolutionary development of sewers over the past 5500 years, and to provide a location for the sharing and distribution of information to others. The donation of additional photos, sketches, articles, books, or other sources of historical information on the history of sewers is welcome.

This website is an educational, non-profit endeavor. Its intent is to offer some insight into the history of sewers and the role its operators, engineers, and builders may have played in making our environment, homes and communities better and healthier places to live.

Site News and Highlights of New Items on Sewerhistory.org

February 2010 - A collection of poems about the wretched sanitary conditions of the Middle ages until the advent of modern sanitation. Special thanks to The Victorian Dictionary for several poems.

December 2009 - New Sewer History poster available: The History of Outhouses

October 2009 - Author Anna Sklar has provided photos from Brown Acres - An Intimate History of the Los Angeles Sewers. Her book describes the complex and often alarming history of the Los Angeles city sewer system, complete with the relationship between headstrong politicians and the reformers who sought to “heal the bay” after a century of pollution and contamination. Photos include the ocean outfall from LA's original Hyperion plant, the "sewage pier" and building of the new Hyperion Treatment Plant. View the photos here.

May 2009 - The Green Bay Sewage Treatment Plant was built in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1933. The plant, expanded in 1936 and the 1950s, has since been demolished. Thanks to Tom Bates for contributing unique photos and design plans of the plant.

February 2009 - The Thunderbox Road Public Art Project features outhouses designed by artists. Thanks to Texas Hill Country editor John Hallowell for information about this unusual event.

October 2008 - New Sewer History poster! The story of Leopold Socha and Stefan Wroblewski, Polish sewer workers who saved a group of Jews during World War II, delivering food and supplies to their refuge in the sewers of Lvov, Poland, for 14 months.

July 2008 - "The Third Man," a 1949 film starring Orson Welles, features a long scene set in the sewers of Vienna, Austria. A Viennese museum celebrates the film, including the unusual manhole design seen in the movie. Brought to our attention by Bobbi Mastrangelo, "The Grate Lady."

May 2008 - Baldwin Latham's Sanitary Engineering, published in 1884.

April 2008 - Samuel M. Gray helped design the Field's Point Sewage Disposal Plant in Providence, Rhode Island, circa 1900. (See his proposed plans.) Paul Nordstrom of the Narragansett Bay Commission and Tom Bates have provided a set of plans and photos of the plant.

January 2008 - A history of the Copenhagen sewer system from IWAP Online

Previous entries in Site News

Site sponsored by:

• Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department

• Arizona Water Association

• Collection Systems Committee of the Water Environment Federation

Inquiries and Donation of Materials: