There are also chances that two underground branches meet simultaneously at the main line and cause a backup. In some old East Coast cities, the storm and sanitary sewers converge during heavy rainstorms and cause sewage to get dumped into rivers and bays with the overflow. If there are bottlenecks in the system, perhaps they could be overwhelmed, but I would not expect worse than we already see periodically.
That regularly causes public health issues already. Would a massive simultaneous flush produce more flow than an intense rainstorm? Apart from minor mishaps, no expert predicts a significant system collapse from collaborative flushing. So maybe there will come a time when a massive toilet flush will have a bigger impact! Street systems tie into road systems, which go to main road systems, and, ultimately, waste treatment plants.
Underneath your town is a wastewater system as complex as a spider's web. The closer you get to the treatment plant, the larger the inside diameter of the pipes becomes. So a four-inch pipe from your house connects to a inch pipe and so on, until -- in larger cities -- pipes may be almost 10 feet in diameter.
A pipe this size can hold a lot of water , but can it hold enough for everyone to flush at once? Even with the city's new inch pipes, this could be a problem, and we're not even counting all of the public toilets in the city.
Of course, the earth isn't level underneath many cities, and to overcome changes in elevation, sewer systems use lift stations, wastewater plants that push sewage uphill toward its final treatment destination.
These stations would be the first overwhelmed by unanimous flushing. There would simply be too much wastewater trying to pass through the pipes at the same time -- kind of like trying to force an orange through a drinking straw -- and the flow of sewage would stop.
Sewage already past the lift stations would return downhill, and as the lift stations flooded, the lines leading to them would back up. Backflow valves probably wouldn't help. Not only would your toilet overflow, but so, too, would every wastewater line in your home, including your shower, kitchen and bathroom sinks, and even your dishwasher and washing machine. Outside, the manhole covers dotting the street would also flood and overflow, leaving people in sewage possibly more than ankle deep.
Depending on how many people live in your city and how large the sewer pipes are, it could be even worse. But with low-flow toilets, this scenario wouldn't be quite so bad. This is the place to ask them. Don't be afraid. Nobody will laugh at you here. Email greatunknowns popularmechanics. Questions will be selected based on quality or at our whim.
Type keyword s to search. Flushing may seem boring and routine, but only for two-thirds of the world population. Turns out, about 2. And yes, the waste could back up into your home. The moment you flush your toilet, your waste goes down the pipe and flows into a sewer system.
First, it goes through a system of pipes under the street. Then, it runs into progressively bigger pipes all the way to your local wastewater treatment plant. The treatment plant pipes are designed to hold a whole lot of wastewater. But are they big enough for everyone to flush at the same time?
It could get ugly. The first thing to get overwhelmed by the vast amount of waste would be the lift stations.
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