every day in Los Angeles 450 million
gallons of sewage makes its way through
a 469 square mile area all the way to
Hyperion treatment plant that’s
disgusting
but in LA waste doesn’t go to waste the
city’s groundbreaking sewage system wins
high marks by going the extra mile in
wastewater treatment as millions of
toilets flush and sinks drain across the
city this amazing 6500 mile mega
structure channels 95% of all that
man-made wastewater to this one spot
Hyperion the largest sewage treatment
facility on the west coast every day the
amount of raw sewage that flows into
Hyperion could fill 780 Olympic sized
swimming pools and some of it comes from
as far away as 55 miles in a network of
tunnels and pipes this enormous it’s
inevitable that something will go wrong
first pipes clogs overflows you name it
and when dealing with raw sewage the
effects of a break can be deadly there
have been cases when people have fell
into sewage have died within a matter of
weeks because their exposure to sewage
either swallowing it or getting it
through various openings in their body
people particularly in this country have
never experienced diseases like cholera
and typhoid
but those organisms are out there
millions of gallons of wastewater flow
from private homes under neighborhood
streets
vast network of increasingly large pipes
that converge at the Hyperion sewage
treatment plant can Playa del Rey
Hyperion has 20 2.5 million gallon
capacity digesters inside the digesters
bacteria living in this anaerobic
environment are agitated by pumps and
mixers as they slowly break down the
sludge intense heat inside the digesters
works to destroy virtually all
disease-causing pathogens is this nasty
soup ferments carbon dioxide and methane
gas are released and since little goes
to waste at Hyperion this by-product is
put to good use
the methane gas is collected and used to
produce energy that powers nearly 85% of
the entire facility in stage one of
secondary treatment the wastewater
spends up to two hours mixed together
with several hundred tons of added
microorganisms that consume the organic
matter remaining in the water unlike the
one celled organisms in the digesters
these microbes require oxygen 96% pure
oxygen the highly concentrated oxygen is
pumped into the secondary tanks
energizing the bacteria into a feeding
frenzy
in just a couple of hours the hyper
oxygenated microbes have devoured all
the remaining organic material in the
wastewater thanks to diligence and
innovation one of the largest sewer
systems in the world is staying ahead of
the time ensuring that any wastewater
that comes in goes back out into the
environment much cleaner than when it
entered the sewers now to prove just how
clean the water coming out of Hyperion
is I’m about to take the plunge with
Hyperion employee Mike demoness so I
understand we’re gonna be going out into
the water right now and this is gonna be
the ultimate litmus test to basically
show that what’s coming out of this
plant is clean perfectly safe for us
much of the surfing craze that developed
in the 1960s is centered around
California and just particularly the
beaches in Southern California and and
the use of those for surfing or fishing
for boating and so on it’s a vital part
of the thing that makes life here in
Southern California nice
gallons of sewage makes its way through
a 469 square mile area all the way to
Hyperion treatment plant that’s
disgusting
but in LA waste doesn’t go to waste the
city’s groundbreaking sewage system wins
high marks by going the extra mile in
wastewater treatment as millions of
toilets flush and sinks drain across the
city this amazing 6500 mile mega
structure channels 95% of all that
man-made wastewater to this one spot
Hyperion the largest sewage treatment
facility on the west coast every day the
amount of raw sewage that flows into
Hyperion could fill 780 Olympic sized
swimming pools and some of it comes from
as far away as 55 miles in a network of
tunnels and pipes this enormous it’s
inevitable that something will go wrong
first pipes clogs overflows you name it
and when dealing with raw sewage the
effects of a break can be deadly there
have been cases when people have fell
into sewage have died within a matter of
weeks because their exposure to sewage
either swallowing it or getting it
through various openings in their body
people particularly in this country have
never experienced diseases like cholera
and typhoid
but those organisms are out there
millions of gallons of wastewater flow
from private homes under neighborhood
streets
vast network of increasingly large pipes
that converge at the Hyperion sewage
treatment plant can Playa del Rey
Hyperion has 20 2.5 million gallon
capacity digesters inside the digesters
bacteria living in this anaerobic
environment are agitated by pumps and
mixers as they slowly break down the
sludge intense heat inside the digesters
works to destroy virtually all
disease-causing pathogens is this nasty
soup ferments carbon dioxide and methane
gas are released and since little goes
to waste at Hyperion this by-product is
put to good use
the methane gas is collected and used to
produce energy that powers nearly 85% of
the entire facility in stage one of
secondary treatment the wastewater
spends up to two hours mixed together
with several hundred tons of added
microorganisms that consume the organic
matter remaining in the water unlike the
one celled organisms in the digesters
these microbes require oxygen 96% pure
oxygen the highly concentrated oxygen is
pumped into the secondary tanks
energizing the bacteria into a feeding
frenzy
in just a couple of hours the hyper
oxygenated microbes have devoured all
the remaining organic material in the
wastewater thanks to diligence and
innovation one of the largest sewer
systems in the world is staying ahead of
the time ensuring that any wastewater
that comes in goes back out into the
environment much cleaner than when it
entered the sewers now to prove just how
clean the water coming out of Hyperion
is I’m about to take the plunge with
Hyperion employee Mike demoness so I
understand we’re gonna be going out into
the water right now and this is gonna be
the ultimate litmus test to basically
show that what’s coming out of this
plant is clean perfectly safe for us
much of the surfing craze that developed
in the 1960s is centered around
California and just particularly the
beaches in Southern California and and
the use of those for surfing or fishing
for boating and so on it’s a vital part
of the thing that makes life here in
Southern California nice
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