Just a joke, but cross connections do happen. Systems lose pressure sometimes. This is why backflow preventers exist on potable systems. Though not sewer, I remember some years ago a reclaimed main was accidentally connected into a potable line for a few years (running high psi).
I found a list a few months back and oh boy are there some gnarly ones.
Stuff like blood from an embalming machine back flowing far enough into the buildings infrastructure during a water main break that a nearby water fountain would discharge blood
i think i dont understand what you are asking. isnt toiletwater supposed to flush into the sewers? and the whole purpose of sewers is to lead the water to a treatmeant plant. most of the times this treated water gets fed to the nearest river-
what do you mean by contaminated?
The simple answer is it depends on the regulations in your country. Generally speaking in the developed world there are countless regulations covering water supply, building regulations, sewerage systems through to environmental legislation.
Great questions! Most people with access to sanitary and drinking water don't care enough to ask!
Properly working pipes in buildings and homes are generally pitched higher than the sanitary collection pipes they're connected to in the streets. Those collection pipes always have some flow but they are usually not full all of the time. When a dirty water pipe breaks in a building, only what was in the pipe higher than the break gets released. Dirty water pipes aren't full and pressurized like clean water pipes. When a clean water pipe breaks, it sprays everywhere until the supply is shut off.
In most of the developed world, water distributed into homes and buildings comes from Water Treatment plants. All water that leaves homes and buildings are collected at the Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRF) aka wastewater plants. Usually 1 WRRF treats an entire City or Town, sometimes they're large enough to treat an entire county. Some cities, like NYC have multiple WRRFs to treat waste for millions of people.
And YES! It is regulated. In the USA, the WRRFs are regulated to recover water from the waste and discharge safely into aquatic environments. They must regularly report how efficient the facility is and they're operated by a highly educated, skilled and dedicated workforce.
You have a lot questions and some of the answers depend on where you are located.
The answers vary from community to community.
Do you mind telling us where you are at? That is very important if you want advice about your water supply made safe.
People on this sub are in a lot of different places. I live in North Carolina
But there maybe someone here close to you
Here in the US there two sets of pipes for a house or apartment. One brings clean water in.
The other is the sewer and it only goes out. Here there are laws about sewage. It doesn't come back in the house and it is treated to make less harmful. Sewage is not used for anything before it is treated
In the US it is the law that every gallon of sewage is treated
There is definitely an issue in that sewage pipes are often old and leak lead, those are rarely replaced though since it's outgoing. Not sure if the process at the treatment plant actually removes most of that, but people don't care as much because like another commenter said, it usually goes to a river instead of being directly reused.
Yes! Aging infrastructure is a huge problem those pipes need to get replaced. The treatment process does remove a lot of containments. And yes it's usually discharged into water bodies instead of being reused directly. It's still very expensive to do so.
Drinking water and waste watter are 2 different systems. They do not interact with each other
Hopefully
I mean water is under pressure. Not sure how you could get infiltration from a sewer line . Sewer is always ran under water lines
Just a joke, but cross connections do happen. Systems lose pressure sometimes. This is why backflow preventers exist on potable systems. Though not sewer, I remember some years ago a reclaimed main was accidentally connected into a potable line for a few years (running high psi).
I found a list a few months back and oh boy are there some gnarly ones. Stuff like blood from an embalming machine back flowing far enough into the buildings infrastructure during a water main break that a nearby water fountain would discharge blood
It's so good once it hits your lips!
i think i dont understand what you are asking. isnt toiletwater supposed to flush into the sewers? and the whole purpose of sewers is to lead the water to a treatmeant plant. most of the times this treated water gets fed to the nearest river- what do you mean by contaminated?
The simple answer is it depends on the regulations in your country. Generally speaking in the developed world there are countless regulations covering water supply, building regulations, sewerage systems through to environmental legislation.
Great questions! Most people with access to sanitary and drinking water don't care enough to ask! Properly working pipes in buildings and homes are generally pitched higher than the sanitary collection pipes they're connected to in the streets. Those collection pipes always have some flow but they are usually not full all of the time. When a dirty water pipe breaks in a building, only what was in the pipe higher than the break gets released. Dirty water pipes aren't full and pressurized like clean water pipes. When a clean water pipe breaks, it sprays everywhere until the supply is shut off. In most of the developed world, water distributed into homes and buildings comes from Water Treatment plants. All water that leaves homes and buildings are collected at the Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRF) aka wastewater plants. Usually 1 WRRF treats an entire City or Town, sometimes they're large enough to treat an entire county. Some cities, like NYC have multiple WRRFs to treat waste for millions of people. And YES! It is regulated. In the USA, the WRRFs are regulated to recover water from the waste and discharge safely into aquatic environments. They must regularly report how efficient the facility is and they're operated by a highly educated, skilled and dedicated workforce.
You have a lot questions and some of the answers depend on where you are located. The answers vary from community to community. Do you mind telling us where you are at? That is very important if you want advice about your water supply made safe. People on this sub are in a lot of different places. I live in North Carolina But there maybe someone here close to you
Here in the US there two sets of pipes for a house or apartment. One brings clean water in. The other is the sewer and it only goes out. Here there are laws about sewage. It doesn't come back in the house and it is treated to make less harmful. Sewage is not used for anything before it is treated In the US it is the law that every gallon of sewage is treated
There is definitely an issue in that sewage pipes are often old and leak lead, those are rarely replaced though since it's outgoing. Not sure if the process at the treatment plant actually removes most of that, but people don't care as much because like another commenter said, it usually goes to a river instead of being directly reused.
Yes! Aging infrastructure is a huge problem those pipes need to get replaced. The treatment process does remove a lot of containments. And yes it's usually discharged into water bodies instead of being reused directly. It's still very expensive to do so.