Gravity Sanitary Sewer Design and Construction

Paul Bizier

Preference :

Wastewater treatment and collection systems are a major expenditure of public funds, but the wastewater system’s function is rarely acknowledged and sewers are seldom seen by the public. Sanitary systems are essential to protecting the public health and welfare in all areas of concentrated population and development. Every community produces wastewater of domestic, commercial, and industrial origin. Sanitary sewers perform the vitally needed functions of collecting these wastewaters and conveying them to points of treatment and disposal. The various stages of design and construction of sanitary sewer projects require an understanding of the objectives of each stage of the project and of the responsibilities and interests of the parties involved. Separate sanitary and storm sewers are highly desirable and are used, with few exceptions, in new systems. The major advantages of separate systems, including wastewater treatment plants, are the protection of watercourses from pollution and the exclusion of stormwater from the treatment system with a consequent saving in treatment plant construction and operating cost. Combined sewers are frequently encountered in older communities where it may be extremely difficult or costly to provide separate systems. Separation is desired, where economically feasible, to reduce the magnitude of facilities and energy demand of treatment works.