finding level of pollution in a drainage system at different location in a town

by mohit pareek
(mumbai, maharahstra, india)

Example of a Drainage Pumping Station

Example of a Drainage Pumping Station

A Rebel's Guide to City Sludge and Under the Pavement - You can't ignore the metal grates under your feet because they're a secret diary of your neighbors' bad habits. Let's see what happens when a little rain turns a quiet street into a high-stakes science experiment.

Mohit tells us this: This project was chosen by us to represent our school at a children science congress. We had to show our project to the judges when they come on a round to see all the projects.

We collected dirty water at different locations from the drainage pool. Then we gave it in laboratory to find out the level of pollutants in the water. We found that the level of pollutants were increasing as the drainage pool was going deep in the city.

We had a successful project and we won 2nd prize at that event. This type of science projects try to give external exposure to students which is very good. I love to love to do this kind of project again and again...

Barry's Response - Sounds like the work of a hydrological engineer. Perhaps that's the field of study you should pursue, Mohit. There will never be a shortage of work. Thanks for your photo.

Search this site for more information now.

Drainage, Drains, and Defiance: The Urban Investigation

Urban Spies, listen up. We shouldn't keep science in sterile labs; it belongs in the mud. Mohit won second prize because he noticed a gradient - a change in levels. Pollutants surged into the city as the drainage pool descended.
  1. Sky-water connection The rain cleans the atmosphere like a giant car wash.

    A storm front doesn't simply wet the sidewalk when it hits the city. Dust and chemicals get sucked up by it.

    We call it dry deposition when gunk settles on the road, and wet deposition when rain drags it down. The city's traffic and factories eventually stink up your drainage system.
  2. Drain Anatomy Why did the pollution get worse in the city? Imagine a town as a funnel. Under the skyscrapers, small pipes merge into giant tunnels.

    Each block adds its own flavor of filth such as oil from cars, soap from car washes and litter from the wind. A thousand streets weigh down the water by the time it gets to the city center.
  3. Freedom to Think: The Forbidden Thought People are often treated like viruses that destroy. Let's think a bit here. What a triumph of engineering. Floods are prevented and our homes are protected.

    Skeptics say we shouldn't just hate our cities; we should perfect them. Let's focus on Human Flourishing instead of climate change. We'll be able to enjoy our big cities and keep the fish happy if we invent better filters. Being in charge of Water quality means using our brains to build more than complaining with our voices.
  4. Making sludge better What's the point of just finding pollution? It's time to harvest! Imagine a city where the drainage system uses Bio-filtration - giant underground lungs filled with mushrooms and plants that eat oil and heavy metals. Dirty water could become liquid gold for vertical farms.

Young Inventor's Polished Reply

You acted like a true hydrological engineer, Mohit. The truth was revealed because you identified the problem, gathered the lab receipts and then presented the evidence.

Keep an eye on the weather forecast if you want to expand this project. Does the pollution spike after a flash flood, or does it sit and rot during a heatwave? You might find that a dusty week leads to a dirtie drain if you analyze the Air Quality data on the day you sample the water.

Science is more than just a list of facts...there's a battle of ideas. Whether you want to protect every leaf, or protect our right to build and grow, we all need clean water.

Get your sample jars. Don't listen to people who say you're too young to understand. There's a lot to learn about the drainage system.

So what do you think?

Is it better to fix the lungs of the city (the air) or the kidneys of the city (the drains)? Is there a spot in your town where the water looks extra murky? Tell us what you found in your local gutter in the comments.

Comments for finding level of pollution in a drainage system at different location in a town

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starstarstarstarstar 		How to Drain Your Home's Plumbing System
by: Irfan

If you have a water hammer problem and older style air chambers, then you need to learn how to drain the system so that air can refill the air chamber. Although draining the system will solve (or greatly reduce) your water hammer problem, the problem will come back as the water system is used. It may be a few months or it may be a year, but you'll have to do this again.

Let's take a look at how to easily drain and then recharge your home's plumbing system.

From Barry - Thanks for bringing the heartbeat of home engineering to our urban investigation, Irfan... Meteorologists study pressure waves in the sky like air chambers in a house. Water hammer mimics a shock wave in the atmosphere during a violent thunderstorm.

When you drain a system and refill it with air, it's like rebooting the physics. We sometimes find that stagnant air in large storm pipes can cause slug flow - a messy, surging movement of water in a city's drainage system. To prevent pipes from bursting during a flash flood, cities have to recharge their drainage basins. Thank you for reminding us that small pipes and big pipes follow the same laws.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Finding level of Pollution in Drainage system...
by: Sathyaraj

Really the valuable article... where discussed above is nice... I got many things by the article... Great thinking... Go ahead...

From Barry - Your Go ahead feels like the green light on a storm chaser's dashboard! You see the valuable data hidden inside a drain; most people see a trash can.

If we want to go ahead in this field, we have to stop being afraid of dirt. We should treat finding pollution levels in drainage systems like a high-stakes detective novel. Every sample tells a story about who lives nearby - do they fertilize their lawns too much? Are their cars leaking oil? Let's cheer on the sewer spies.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Good information
by: Anonymous

As a farmer water pollution is a huge concern to me. Thanks for this information.

From Barry - We hear you, and we respect your sweat. Most people blame farmers for everything, but you know the truth: urban runoff poisons the water your crops need.

Based on good stewardship, you protect the land to feed the world. We often find that city-slickers collectively dump more chemicals into the water than a responsible farm when we track pollution in a drainage system. We protect your Right-to-Farm by exposing urban pollution. Fight for clean water - it's the most radical thing you can do.
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starstarstarstarstar 		pollution
by: Anonymous

I understand that, it is very nice.The image is very interesting.

From Barry - I get it. An industrial shack might look boring to some, but to us, it's the Front Line of environmental protection.
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starstarstarstarstar 		pollution
by: Anonymous

wow, such a beautifull article. The image is very nice. The informations are also very usefull.

From Barry - We use visual maps to show how smog drifts. You can see the Kidneys of the city in this image. The city chokes on its own waste if a pumping station like that fails. You can't protect what you can't see. We use these images to stimulate your imagination.
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starstarstarstarstar 		pollution in a drainage system
by: Sangeetha

Modern drainage systems incorporate geotextile filters that retain and prevent fine grains of soil from passing into and clogging the drain. Geotextiles are synthetic textile fabrics specially manufactured for civil and environmental engineering applications. Geotextiles are designed to retain fine soil particles while allowing water to pass through. In a typical drainage system they would be laid along a trench which would then be filled with coarse granular material: gravel, sea shells, stone or rock. The geotextile is then folded over the top of the stone and the trench is then covered by soil. Groundwater seeps through the geotextile and flows within the stone to an outfall. In high groundwater conditions a perforated plastic (PVC or PE) pipe is laid along the base of the drain to increase the volume of water transported in the drain.

From Barry - Sangeetha, you just described the earth's skin! Natural filtration is mimicked by geotextiles like these.

Earth is a filter, and rocks are its teeth. Folding synthetic fabrics over gravel creates a path that traps pollutants before they hit the deep city pools Mohit talked about above. It's Civil Engineering meeting Environmental Science. By scaling your Geotextile idea to fit every drain in a town, we might be able to solve the problem of finding pollution levels in a drainage system at different locations in a town before it starts. More than talking about rocks and cloth; you're talking about urban survival.

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