Sewer History: Photos and Graphics

Sewage Disposal Plant at Field's Point, Providence, Rhode Island
	Sewage Disposal Plant at Field's Point, Providence, Rhode Island. The plant includes a pumping station and press house. Plans date from 1895 to 1900. For further information, see History of Sewage Treatment in Rhode Island: 1884 Recognizing the need for a system to treat the waste, the City Council sends City Engineer Samuel M. Gray to Europe to study the latest methods of treating household and industrial waste. His recommendation: a system of interceptors by which sewage would be collected from neighborhood sewage lines and conveyed to Field's Point, a small peninsula on the west bank of the Providence River. There sewage would be processed by the chemical precipitation method, already in wide use in England. 1901 The Providence Sewage Treatment System is put into operation. The chemical precipitation plant, the third of its kind in the United States, is the largest of its type ever built. The system consists of a pumping station at Ernest Street to lift sewage to Field's Point for treatment. Source: Paul Nordstrom of the Narragansett Bay Commission, and Tom Bates. Per Mr. Nordstrom: "When we took over some of the City of Providence facilities in the early [nineteen] eighties, we immediately tried to get the facility on the national historic register because we understood it to be one of the earliest in the country."
Green Bay Treatment Plant, Green Bay, Wisconsin
	Floor plan and photos of the Green Bay Sewage Treatment Plant, Green Bay, Wisconsin, 1933. (View more plans below.) The plant, expanded in 1936 and the 1950s, has since been demolished. From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: "Around the turn of the century, the Fox River Valley began to experience growing pains. The river was viewed more as an avenue for waste assimilation rather than as a resource. Rapid development caused increased runoff, wetland destruction, and the discharge of raw sewage resulting in dramatic changes of water quality. "Historical documentation bears this out. In 1933, reports indicated that the stench from the river was so bad that windows had to remain closed at Green Bay East High School. In 1938, alarmed commercial fisherman pulled up nets of dead fish which was eventually attributed to low dissolved oxygen levels caused by sulphite liquor. Bay Beach was permanently closed to swimming in 1943 for health-related reasons (Campbell 8/14/97). "Some steps were taken to remedy the water quality problems. The Green Bay Metropolitan Sewage District was formed in 1931 followed by the construction of Green Bay's first sewage treatment plant. In 1949, the State of Wisconsin mandated the installation of wastewater treatment plants for all Fox Valley municipalities and paper mills. State pollution control programs were strengthened again in the mid 1960s (WDNR 1988). Despite these efforts, the water quality of the Fox River continued to decline." Blueprints for the Green Bay Plant (in png format): 1933 Original Construction Site Plan Clarifier Plan Clarifier Sections, Clarifier Details, Clarifier Alt. 1, Alt. 2, Alt. 3, Alt. 4 Digester Roof, Digester Sections Floor Plan Sections 1, Sections 2, Sections 3, Sections 4, Sections 5, Alt. Sections Elevations Piping, Alternate D Piping Power Wiring, Alternate D Wiring Screenings & Grease Box Pump Pit Floor Plans, Pump Pit Sections, Pump Pit Piping Alternate B Plan & Sections Roof Plan Framing Plan Exterior Details Interior Details Footing Plan Outfall Plan & Profile 1936 Expansion Site Plan Clarifier Plan 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Clarifier Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Digester 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Sludge Meter Footing Plan Floor Plan Details Sections Elevations Heating Diagram Laboratory Piping Plan & Sections 1, 2 Sludge Beds, Sludge Bed Enclosure Power Plant 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Source: Tom Bates.
Other Treatment Information
	Johnson's filter press, circa 1884. This press hastens the consolidation of sludge in a precipitation tank by pressure. Samuel M. Gray, Proposed Plan for a Sewerage System, and for the Disposal of the Sewage of the City of Providence (Providence: Providence Press Company, Printers to the City, 1884), Plate 23, opposite page 100.
	Photos of the outfall sewer and sewage farm at Salt Lake City, Utah, 1897. Source: "Outfall Sewer and Sewage Farm at Salt Lake City, Utah," Engineering News and American Railway Journal, Volume XXXVII, No. 11 (18 March 1897), insert between pp. 168-169.
	Distribution of sewage from gravity outfall sewer via open trenches and irrigation ditches at "sewer farm". Sewage was conveyed from downtown Salt Lake City to sewer farms several miles northwest of the city for reuse and disposal. Sewage was distributed to crop areas by open conveyance systems. Source: Utah State Historical Society, Photo no. C-601 #1604. Used by permission, Utah State Historical Society, all rights reserved.
	Table Showing Data (for the Fiscal Year 1907) Relative to Sewerage and Sewage Disposal in Certain American Cities and Towns. Part I. Source: "Sewerage Statistics: Collected and Tabulated by the Sanitary Section of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers," Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies, Volume 42, No. 3 (March 1909), insert between pp. 146-147.
	Table Showing Data (for the Fiscal Year 1907) Relative to Sewerage and Sewage Disposal in Certain American Cities and Towns. Part II. Source: "Sewerage Statistics: Collected and Tabulated by the Sanitary Section of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers," Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies, Volume 42, No. 3 (March 1909), insert between pp. 146-147.
	Design for detritus (grit) tank, circa 1910. J. T. Brown, W. H. Maxwell, editors, "Sewage Disposal," The Encyclopaedia of Municipal and Sanitary Engineering (New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1910), p. 399.
	Design for preliminary preparation tank for elimination of a large proportion of suspended solids, circa 1910. J. T. Brown, W. H. Maxwell, editors, "Sewage Disposal," The Encyclopaedia of Municipal and Sanitary Engineering (New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1910), p. 400.
	Design for precipitating or settling tank, circa 1910. J. T. Brown, W. H. Maxwell, editors, "Sewage Disposal," The Encyclopaedia of Municipal and Sanitary Engineering (New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1910), p. 404.
	Sewage Screening Apparatus, circa 1912. Source: Henry Lemmoin-Cannon, Sewage Disposal in the United Kingdom (London: St. Bride's Press, Limited, 1912), p. 191. Digitized by Google Books, thanks to Tom Bates for locating and contributing this book.
	Phase I of the Roger Road WWTF, under construction in November, 1950. Source: Consolidated Aerial Survey.
	Advertisement for Inertol Paints that were used in the Roger Road WWTF, Tucson, Arizona, 1953. Manufactured by Inertol Co., Inc., of New Jersey and California. Source: Sewage and Industrial Wastes, February 1953, p. 49a.
	Facility at Roger Road and Ft. Lowell, Tucson, Arizona, October 7, 1953. Source: Pima County Wastewater Management Department, Tucson, Arizona.