Wastewater Treatment Process

The Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant employs reliable treatment processes that mirror nature's handling of wastewater, with an important advantage: what nature might take months to complete, the Plant accomplishes in about eight hours.

The following important steps take place during the wastewater treatment process:

• Incoming wastewater, or influent, is screened and flows through a primary sedimentation process. This allows most of the solid material to settle to the bottom of tanks and be removed.
• Next, oxygen is added to the wastewater to grow naturally occurring microscopic organisms. These organisms eat particles in the wastewater, thereby removing them from the solution.
• The wastewater then travels to secondary clarifiers where the organisms settle to the bottom and are removed, leaving cleaned water.
• Next, the water is chlorinated to remove any remaining harmful organisms. During this time, the wastewater travels through a two-mile "outfall" to the Sacramento River, near the town of Freeport, California.
• Before entering the river, sulfur dioxide is added to neutralize the chlorine making the water safe for the environment.
  

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