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JEA's sewer collection system handles more than 125 million gallons of wastewater each day.
What is Wastewater? It's also called sewer water and is the water from baths, showers, sinks, dishwashers, washing machines and toilets.
Where does it go? After you flush your toilet or empty your bathtub, the water disappears down your drain and is carried from your home through a network or underground pipes and pumps until it reaches a JEA wastewater treatment plant.
What happens at the plant? That's when the clean-up begins. Bar screens remove boards, plastics, rags and other objects floating in the wastewater. These things have to be taken out so that it does not clog pipes or damage special machines.
After the large items are removed, the wastewater is sent to a settling tank. This is called primary treatment. The water stays there until things like small stones and coffee grounds settle at the bottom. Lighter things, like oil and grease, will float on the water surface. Special pumps suck the heavy objects off the bottom. Then the oil and grease are removed.
Secondary treatment uses bacteria or micro-organisms to clean wastewater even more. These micro-organisms help decompose the wastes in the water. How? It is their food supply! The bacteria eats the waste. Then the remaining wastes and the bacteria (called sludge) are sent to tanks for treatment. At the end of secondary treatment, 90 percent of the pollutants have been removed.
After secondary treatment, filters are used to remove additional matter from the wastewater.
The wastewater is disinfected during the final treatment. Treated wastewater can be disinfected by adding chlorine or by using ultraviolet light. If chlorine is used, we do something called dechlorination to make sure aquatic life is not harmed when we discharge the water.
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