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Sir Joseph Bazalgette was the Victorian engineering mastermind and
public health visionary behind the vast sewage system that Londoners
still rely on today.
Sewage for at least 9 million Londoners is dumped daily into the Thames
Once upon a time I heard a TERRIBLE tale about sewage... NYC sewage.
One day... in a quiet country town... came several men in fancy suits.
They had a problem... a sewage disposal problem.
They needed a vast piece of land on which to dump... treated sewage.
Several farmers nixed the offer... which included... money.
One farmer very much needed the money... and got... the sewage.
He thought it would help enhance his farm's poor growing soil.
The day came. The sewage was delivered en masse.
It was then that the farmer discovered...
that the nitrogen had been totally removed.
The black stuff he got wouldn't grow a thing.
I've been shy of buying bagged potting soil, ever since.
The problem of dealing with human waste... needs to be addressed.
LaMar Alexander's designs for cabins and more
LaMar's YouTube Channel
LaMar's video about his solar composting toilet
LaMar says that in the 7 years that he has used his
solar composting septic tank, there is only about 1 inch of residue left
at the bottom of the 4x4x8 cement block tank, which he explains is
due to evaporation and the action of microbes.
Some of his replies in the video's "comments":
"The grey water system is discussed in my cabin interior videos but the system is just a bucket under my sinks to catch the water and the shower water runs into a french drain. Grey water is filtered and recycled to shrubs and trees."
"They are using my system now in rural areas of India and Pakistan. US codes are designed to make money for contractors and counties not to produce good results."
"Generally you don't need to add anything to your compost as the bacteria are already present in your gut and in the soil and will work just fine. You can add a cup of rid X or a cup of natural yogurt as a starter but it really isn't necessary. There is almost no smell from my composter but all compost releases a small amount of methane gas and that is just a natural process as any material composts."
solarcabin - 5 years ago
"Thanks friend- over 16 years and still works great!"
solarcabin - 1 year ago
"Flies don't seem to go in at all. Too hot for them."
"Yes I have running water but my entire cabin is off grid and is designed to reduce waste and impact on the environment."
"A regular toilet wastes about 2 gallons of water every time you flush."
solarcabin - 1 year ago
"Getting rid of that excess moisture makes it dehydrate and compost much faster and the green house aids in both. Almost 20 years and this system still works perfectly and has never even used the drain field."
"You could build it next to a house as long as it gets direct sunlight. You do not want to run a flush toilet or other water into it. Too much water will defeat the composting. The tank is closed on the bottom."
"Yes I recommend chicken wire if you have kids or animals that might get on it. I include those instructions in the book. You could use a holding tank if you want to go longer between emptying."
"A 4x8x4 two baffle tank like mine will take care of 4 people as long as you are not putting in excess water. Toilet paper should be put in trash and burned or composted in a compost pile."
solarcabin - 1 year ago
Question: Do high temperatures kill the microbes?
"My design is now used all over Pakistan and hot climates as it requires no drainfield and kills pathogens. It should be an approved system but the US wants expensive systems."
"The less water in the system the better. Use a gray water leach field or french drain. Recycle that water back to trees and shrubs."
"I don't because it just dries and becomes nothing in the tank. I have a separate system to use urine for fertilizer through a sprinkler system."
"The less moisture in it the better. Use a urine diverter and shower water should be recycled back in to green things."
"It really doesn't freeze because it heats up on sunny winter days and no smell unless you stick your nose right on the vent."
"I use a biodegradable toilet chemical that won't kill the microbes. Just a cap full once a week and no smell." "I use Camco Blue Enzyme."
"Ye and I can take my entire toilet outside and spray and scrub it down. You can't do that with a standard toilet!"
Wikipedia resource
At that time, (1858) the River Thames was little more than an open sewer,
empty of any fish or other wildlife,
and an obvious public health hazard to Londoners.
Bazalgette's solution was to construct a network of 82 miles (132 km) of enclosed underground brick main sewers to intercept sewage outflows, and 1,100 miles (1,800 km) of street sewers, to intercept the raw sewage which
up until then flowed freely through the streets and thoroughfares of London.
History of London's Sewers
- March 2019 -
Hidden beneath the city streets lie 2,000 kilometres of brick tunnels that
take raw sewage direct from our homes, along with 130 kilometres of
interconnecting main sewers the size of railway tunnels. Much was
engineered in the middle of the nineteenth century and includes magnificent
cathedral-like sewage pumping stations.
Before Bazalgette's designs, raw sewage seeped from inadequate sewers
into the River Thames, turning it into a stinking open sewer; its foreshore
thick with untreated human waste, industrial discharge and slaughterhouse
effluent. The increasingly wide use of the new flushing toilets exacerbated
the problem, overwhelming cesspits and causing more waste to flow into
the river.
In the 19th century, London's population numbered around 2 million.
The city suffered fatal epidemics of cholera when thousands died. The
Victorians had no known cure. It was widely believed breathing in 'miasma' -
foul contaminated air - caused disease and death. London-based physician
Dr. John Snow put forward the theory that the disease was water-borne,
but his ideas received little attention. The year 1853-54 saw cholera claim
a further 10,738 victims.
In the scorching summer of 1858 temperatures averaged 35 degrees celcius
(95 degrees Fahrenheit). The stench from the Thames - the 'Great Stink' -
became completely overwhelming to those nearby, including Parliament
whose legislative business was disrupted.
Tons of lime was spread on the Thames foreshore and near the mouths of
sewers discharging into the river to try and dissolve the toxic effluent, with
little effect. Parliament was forced to hurriedly legislate to create a new
unified sewage system for London. The Bill became law on August 2, 1858.
Joseph Bazalgette was chief engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works
(MBW), having began his career in public health engineering in 1849. He
spent several frustrating years drawing up various plans for a revolutionary
rethink of the city's sewers, only to see them repeatedly shelved, as Parliament
and others argued about the system's merits.
The Great Stink was the catalyst for radical change. Parliament gave full
responsibility for cleaning up the Thames to the MBW - favouring Bazalgette's
plans - along with the ability to borrow 3 million pounds. This was a colossal
sum then, and one which had more than doubled by the end of the project.
When completed in the mid-1870s, the new sewage network's enclosed
design - which captured both sewage and rainwater - virtually eliminated
cholera. Dr. John Snow's theory about cholera being a water-borne disease
was correct, although he died at the height of the Great Stink without
knowing that he had been vindicated.
Integral to Bazalgette's plans was the construction of four major pumping
stations to lift sewage up from low lying sewers for discharge eastwards.
The magnificent Crossness pumping station raised the effluent from south
of the river up 12 metres into a reservoir by means of four enormous powerful
beam engines, designed by James Watt & Co, and named Victoria,
Prince Consort, Albert Edward and Alexandra.
From here it was released into the Thames well beyond London,
swept out to sea on the ebbing tide.
Effluent from north of the river was pumped by Abbey Mills pumping
station - another temple of engineering in elaborate Italianate Gothic
style - for similar discharge into the Thames, well beyond the city limits.
Bazalgette, who remained Chief Engineer of the MBW for 33 years, also
changed the face of London by reclaiming 7 kilometres of riverside land
and muddy foreshore to create the vast Albert (1869), Victoria (1870) and
Chelsea (1874) Embankments to accommodate his low lying sewers. He laid
out new city thoroughfares, including Shaftesbury Avenue, Northumberland
Avenue, and Charing Cross Road, and built bridges across the Thames,
including Hammersmith and Battersea.
With his sewer network hidden deep beneath the city, Joseph Bazalgette's
enlightened public health legacy is largely unsung today. (This) A small
wall-mounted bust is Bazalgette's only public memorial.
London's 150 year old sewage system is today struggling under the strain
of the city's ever increasing population -
now nearly 9 million.
Millions of tons of raw sewage still spills untreated
into the Thames each year, especially after extreme weather.
Tideway is in the process
of building a 'super sewer' - the Thames Tideway Tunnel - to relieve the
pressure on the old system. It will run under London for 25 kilometres,
from Acton in the west to Beckton in the east, at depths of between
30 and 60 metres, using gravity to transfer the waste eastwards for
treatment. It is due for completion in 2024.
As part of the super sewer project, a new embankment is planned for the
river by Blackfriars Bridge. The public open space will be named Bazalgette
Embankment in honour of Sir Joseph Bazalgette.
(end of article)
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