Laura/LRB. they/them. Mid 20s.
Psychology, BA.
Scientific Illustration, BA.
I enjoy books, movies, TV, comics, graphic novels, art, and being a fan. My favorites are: Steven Universe, The Owl House, Critical Role, Rise of the Guardians, Green Lantern TAS, Teen Titans, Avatar the Last Airbender, X-men, etc. I love superheroes, animation, and stories with heart.
DeviantArt: http://tdankbelle.deviantart.com/
Instagram: @LornaRavenBelle
Twitter: @LornaRBelle
What we need to do is convince all the disney adults in america that high speed rail would be a preferable way of getting to disneyworld compared to driving or flying. We could maybe harness their fondness for the monorail or something, but this is a group of people that has time, income, and passion that we could leverage. If we could direct 5% of the enthusiasm they have for limited edition popcorn buckets into calling their representatives and demanding high-speed interstate rail, we could get it by 2030
Avery Jackson did a non-medical transition at the age of four. At the time, they felt more comfortable as a girl. As they grew up and their understanding of gender evolved, they decided nonbinary transgender suited them better.
And now that they are 15, their family is moving out of Missouri because they fear the recent draconian anti-trans laws.
“No longer identifies as a girl” does not mean they identify as a boy. They are still trans. They knew from the age of 4 that being a boy was not right for them.
I don’t think they changed their mind. I think they just found a better understanding of who they were.
These bigots know nothing about trans people yet think they are qualified to criticize them.
This is a point if favor of letting kids of that age experiment with gender. If it doesn’t work for them, they’ll figure that out. If it does work for them, they’ll be able to figure that out too. If they need to try on different identities to figure out what works best for them, that will also help them.
Wastewater treatment is not achieved through a series of chemical treatments. Instead, it’s a managed natural process in which the effluent from the sewer system is filtered, aerated and then broken down by wild microbes.
Technically it doesn’t need to be aerated, but anaerobic bacteria, which don’t need oxygen, produce much stinkier byproducts during this breakdown process, so most decent-sized urban wastewater treatment plants do aerate in order to spare the neighbors. Very simple rural wastewater plants may just pump the wastewater into a lagoon—an outdoor pond, usually with a liner of some kind—and just let whatever grows in there do so.
As the wastewater is breaking down, it separates into a layer of muck (sludge) and a layer of cleaner water. Large wastewater treatment plants have a series of stages with clearer and cleaner water emerging from each one. Small plants may have a series of lagoons or just one. The more stuff you have in your wastewater that’s not poop (say maybe you accept discharge from a local factory, or there’s a restaurant district with a lot of food waste in their greywater), the longer and harder it is to treat.
Discharge from wastewater treatment plants to natural water bodies is heavily regulated and monitored for quality. In the US, it’s regulated by the EPA, and they take it seriously. The finishing step involves testing your discharge to make sure it’s within your approved discharge limits. This is the only step where a chemical treatment is commonly added: a little chlorine, to kill off the last of your microbes. But some plants use constructed wetlands or sand filters instead. If they do apply chlorine, they also have to take it back out before releasing the water, so that they don’t upset the ecosystem the water will be released to.
(If you have wastewater that’s mostly human waste and a correctly sized plant, you shouldn’t technically need this step. The microbes should be slowly precipitating out of the water along with the sludge. But things like high volume, cold temperatures, and complex effluent can make those benchmarks hard to hit without a finishing step.)
MORE COOL STUFF ABOUT WASTEWATER:
DID YOU KNOW? Potassium, an important component in fertilizer, is actually mined out of the earth? Did you know potassium deposits are running low? DID YOU KNOW POTASSIUM IS A WASTEWATER BYPRODUCT!?
DID YOU KNOW? Some large plants can trap and clean methane from their wastewater and use it for power?
DID YOU KNOW? The precipitated sludge can be further treated and used for fertilizer? I particularly liked the plant that was using it to fertilize fast-growing trees for the paper trade.
DID YOU KNOW? Many wastewater plant operators have a protective—if sometimes frustrated—relationship with their microbes, which they call “the bugs”, and include not just bacteria but also other microorganisms like algae and daphnia. The bugs are the workhorses of the wastewater plant: if their ecosystem becomes imbalanced, everyone’s job gets harder. I doubt they’d appreciate this, but in my mind, wastewater treatment operators are microbe herders. Though I suppose thinking of them as bog technicians is also accurate.
This has been the short version of my “wastewater treatment is fricking awesome” rant. I generalized a lot but the gist is still true. You asked for something cool, behold: Wastewater treatment, first wonder of man’s interface with nature.
OKAY BUT IM A CHEMICAL ENGINEER BY TRAINING AND READING THIS WAS THE MOST SOOTHING AND SATISFYING THING I NEEDED RIGHT NOW.
ALT
