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I toured New York City's largest wastewater-treatment plant, which collects poop from 1 million people. It was stunning.

I went on a tour of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, the largest wastewater facility in New York City.

Newtown wastewater eggs
  • The plant treats wastewater from more than 1 million people. It only opens to the public a few times per year.
  • I left awestruck by the magnitude of the facility. Here's what it's like.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more.
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On a crisp fall morning, I showered, brushed my teeth, and sent all that used water down the drain. Half an hour later, I was on the subway, following my wastewater to its next destination: the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The plant treats wastewater from more than 1 million people on the east side of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn and Queens. It's the largest of New York City's 14 wastewater facilities, and features pairs of giant silver "digester eggs" that glisten in the sunlight.

The plant only opens to the public a few times per year I visited as part of Open House New York, a weekend-long event that grants entry to closed-off sites throughout the city.

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As someone who often writes about waste, water, and contamination, I expected to enjoy learning about the process of turning the "sludge" from New York homes into clean liquid. But I left even more awe-struck by the magnitude of the facility than I'd anticipated.

Take a look inside this palace for poop.

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Aria Bendix/Business Insider

The Newtown Creek plant was originally built in 1967. Nearly three decades later, the city announced plans to expand the facility and make upgrades to comply with the US Clean Water Act, which requires at least 85% of pollutants to be removed from wastewater before it can be discharged into local waterways.

At the time, neighbors were opposed to the expansion because they had grown tired of the rotten egg smell (which no longer exists).

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"It's hard to hide a 110-foot-tall building," Richard Olcott, one of the plant's designers, told the Ornamental Metal Institute of New York . "So, rather than hiding it, we thought we should do the opposite: We should really show the thing off and make something everyone would look at and go, 'Wow! What's that?'"

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Aria Bendix/Business Insider

Aria Bendix/Business Insider

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After wastewater travels through sewers to the treatment plant, it passes through screens that remove large chunks of garbage like bottles, rags, newspapers, and plastic cups. Pam Elardo, New York's deputy commissioner of wastewater treatment, said one the most common forms of trash is baby or facial wipes that claim to be flushable but aren't.

All that trash is then sent to a landfill.

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This separation makes the top particles easy to remove. The bottom ones the "sludge" are sent to a device that spins them rapidly. The centrifugal force helps sift out tiny particles like coffee grinds from the bulk of the waste.

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After about three to six hours, the mixture moves to "settling tanks," where heavy particles are further sifted out. Some return to the "bubbling tanks" to help stimulate the growth of more good bacteria that feeds on pollutants.

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Once the treated water is ready to be disinfected, it goes to tanks containing sodium hypochlorite, a chemical found in bleach, for about 15 to 20 minutes. Then the water is discharged into local waterways.

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The eggs are clad in stainless steel and light up at night. There are eight of them at the facility.

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When the sludge arrives, it gets heated to around 95 degrees Fahrenheit in an oxygen-free environment, where it remains for 15 to 20 days. This creates more good bacteria that breaks down the sludge into water, carbon dioxide, and methane gas.

The egg shape helps conserve energy for churning waste.

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I understand why Greenpoint residents used to complain about the rotten-egg smell.

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"We're designed to take human waste and industrial waste and make it clean," Elardo said. "There are a lot of exotic things that come our way that we shouldn't necessarily be spending a lot of time, energy, and money treating."

Turning the wastewater from sewage pipes into "100% H2O" could cost "hundreds of billions of dollars," she added.

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The best way to treat microplastics, Elardo said, would be to cut them off at the source the way the city already does with silver from dental facilities.

"In the old days, we got tons of silver in our system that actually contaminated the biosolids. There was a huge national program to make dentists pull the silver out at their offices," she said. "That's the kind of source control I'm talking about either treat it at the source or eliminate the product."

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Whenever I do the dishes or flush the toilet at home, I'll think of my water's journey toward those giant steel eggs.

See Also:

SEE ALSO: https://www.businessinsider.com/birth-control-pills-hormones-estrogen-drinking-water-health-effects-2019-10

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