Over the past fifteen years, Jon Schladweiler, the Historian of the Arizona Water & Pollution Control 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

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

November 2007 - Few people think of the lowly manhole cover as art, but Bobbi Mastrangelo, a Florida artist known as "The Grate Lady," uses the designs and textures of manhole covers to create beautiful sculptures and handmade paper pieces. See some of her work in our Sewers in the Culture section, which features ways that sewers have entered our culture in art, sculpture, literature, music and even a sewer pipe hotel.

New Sewer History Poster Available - See Sewer Pipes Through the Ages.

October 2007 - The first modern sewers in Brussels, Belgium, were built in the last half of the 1800s. They are predominantly brick and oval-shaped, similar to sewers in other large European cities of the time. Brussels was unusual, however, in choosing to make the Senne River, heavily polluted from sewage and garbage since the 16th century, into a large covered channel -- essentially turning a river into a permanent sewer. Only in the last few years, after construction of a wastewater treatment plant, has work begun on reclaiming the river and returning it to its former state. Thanks to Vincent Duseigne of Brussels, Belgium, for information about the Brussels sewers and for his large collection of photos of the sewers and sewer workers of Brussels.

September 2007 - Will water conservation cause blockage problems with low-slope HCSs and sewers? Some research indicates that low-flow devices may not cause significant problems, but grey water systems which divert wastewater from high-flow appliances like washing machines might. British researchers are investigating the issue, and a British company is developing a low-flow toilet with a new 'displaced-air' flushing principle for toilets (neither vacuum nor compressed air) which reduces the flushing volume to 1.5 litres. The air assisted drainage also overcomes the problem of poor waste transportation with reduced flush volumes. Thanks to Garry Moore, Managing Director of Phoenix Product Development Limited, London.

July/August 2007 - The value of effluent came center-stage in Pima County, Arizona, when the City of Marana sought to withdraw from a governmental agreement and take control of a treatment plant and all its effluent. The county responded by making the treatment plant a park to prevent a take-over. Marana wants the effluent in order to meet state-mandated requirements for renewable water sources to support growth.

June 2007 - Video and stills of a dramatic 1999 incident of storm water erupting out of a storm drain manhole cover.

May 2007 - Another infrastructure disaster when a water main broke in Seattle, Washington, on May 2.

April 2007 - Beit She'an in modern-day Israel was the site of extensive Roman Era construction including baths and latrines. Thanks to Professor Kay Axhausen of Zurich, Switzerland, for her photos of an unusual Roman-era latrine.

March 2007 - The material PVC was invented in 1835 and was first used to make pipe in the 1930s in Germany. We have received an article and timeline about the history of PVC pipe in waters and sewers. Thanks to Steve Cooper and Rober Walker of the Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association.

February 2007 - Sewers were important enough to Romans during the Roman Empire to have a goddess of sewers - Cloacina. We have posted an article about Cloacina and a sewer history poster featuring her.

Sanitation - the Greatest Medical Advance Since 1840. The importance of sanitation got some recognition last month when the British Medical Journal asked a group of experts what the most important medical advance since 1840 is. Sanitation won the vote over antibiotics and all the advances of the 20th century. See article from ABC News.

Previous entries in Site News

Site sponsored by:

• Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department

• Arizona Water & Pollution Control Association

• Collection Systems Committee of the Water Environment Federation

Inquiries and Donation of Materials: