WTTW News Explains: What Happens After You Flush?

Every time you flush, the waste disappears in a swirly whirl, never to be seen again. It’s magic! Actually, it’s science and engineering. And the flush is just the start.This is where your business mingles with all the other household wastewater. You know, the scummy stuff that gets rinsed off your dishes and clothes and body.That’s because Chicago has what’s called a combined sewer system.

That waste gets swept into an even lower and bigger pipe owned by the MWRD, or the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. That’s the agency that reclaims and cleans wastewater — more than a billion gallons every day — in the Chicago metro area.Best case scenario, this caca cocktail is headed straight for a water reclamation plant.

Worst case: major rainfall and flooding overwhelm the sewer system, including the even bigger deep tunnel pipes, and some of these untreated presents are released into waterways like the Chicago River. That’s right — back in the gross old days, before water treatment plants, this is where all the toilet treasures went. Straight into the river. And before that, Chicago’s sewage dumped into Lake Michigan — aka, our drinking water.Today, when wastewater reaches one of Chicago’s seven treatment plants, large screens filter out big debris. The water then sits in tanks where solids settle to the bottom and are funneled away.

Once our microbes have done their duty, the water is sent to a final settling tank. The heavy microbes drop to the bottom, and the clean water on top flows into the waterways. But not Lake Michigan. Repeat: not Lake Michigan.Thanks to our sponsors:

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