Sewage

Sewage or domestic wastewater is the liquid waste produced by people when using the toilet, having a bath or shower or washing clothes and dishes. In some places, it also includes rain-water falling on houses and roads. It can also have liquid waste from factories in it. It flows in pipes called sewers to be cleaned up at a sewage treatment works.

Sewage is mostly water but it also has many microbes some of which can be harmful. It can have many chemicals in it which can also cause harm to animals and humans. Most sewage in poor counties is not treated and may spread disease. A problem that occurs sometimes is a sewage spill which can be damaging to health and wildlife.

Apperenace

Pumping station lifting sewage to the treatment plant in Bujumbura, Burundi

Greywater (a component of sewage) in a settling tank

The temperature of sewage tends to be slightly higher than in drinking water but it is more stable than the ambient temperature. The color of fresh sewage is slightly grey, whereas older sewage (also called "septic sewage") is dark grey or black. The odor of fresh sewage is "oily" and unpleasant. Older sewage has an unpleasant foul odor due to hydrogen sulfide gas and other decomposition by-products. Sewage can have high turbidity from suspended solids.

Sewage Media

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  Screening of the sewage with bar screens at a sewage treatment plant to remove larger objects in Norton, Zimbabwe

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  Screening of sewage at a sewage treatment plant in Bujumbura, Burundi

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  Lack of maintenance causing sewage to overflow from a manhole into the street of an informal settlement near Cape Town, South Africa

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  Ocean outfall pipes in Cape May, New Jersey, United States – pipes exposed after the sand was removed by severe storm