Sewage and sewerage of farm homes [1928]

Chapter 7: IMPORTANCE OF AIR IN TREATMENT OF SEWAGE

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About This Book

Provides practical sanitation principles and step-by-step guidance for disposing of household sewage on farms, defining sewage, sewers, and sewerage while quantifying typical waste. Explains microbial decomposition, the role of air in treatment, and hazards from sewage-borne diseases and parasites with emphasis on preventing contamination of water and food. Describes treatment methods and components such as septic tanks, grease traps, filters, and distribution fields, and stresses design choices based on local conditions. Emphasizes proper construction, routine operation and maintenance, and warns that neglect or improper siting can produce nuisances or health risks.

IMPORTANCE OF AIR IN TREATMENT OF SEWAGE

Decomposition of organic matter by bacterial agency is not a complete method of treating sewage, as will be shown later under "Septic tanks." It is sufficient to observe here that in all practical methods of treatment aeration plays a vital part. The air or the sewage, or both, must be in a finely divided state, as when sewage percolates through the interstices of a porous, air-filled soil. The principle involved was clearly stated 30 years ago by Hiram F. Mills, a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Health. In discussing the intermittent filtration of sewage through gravel stones too coarse to arrest even the coarsest particles in the sewage Mr. Mills said: "The slow movement of the sewage in thin films over the surface of the stones, with air in contact, caused a removal for some months of 97 per cent of the organic nitrogenous matter, as well as 99 per cent of the bacteria."