A sanitary sewer is an underground pipe or tunnel system for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to a sewage treatment plant or disposal. Sanitary sewers are a type of gravity sewer and are part of an overall system called a "sewage system" or sewerage. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas may also carry industrial wastewater. In municipalities served by sanitary sewers, separate storm drains may convey surface runoff directly to surface waters. An advantage of sanitary sewer systems is that they avoid combined sewer overflows. Sanitary sewers are typically much smaller in diameter than combined sewers which also transport urban runoff. Backups of raw sewage can occur if excessive stormwater inflow or groundwater infiltration occurs due to leaking joints, defective pipes etc. in aging infrastructure.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is a public agency of the City and County of San Francisco that provides water, wastewater, and electric power services to the city and an additional 1.9 million customers within three San Francisco Bay Area counties.
A water supply network or water supply system is a system of engineered hydrologic and hydraulic components that provide water supply. A water supply system typically includes the following:
- A drainage basin
- A raw water collection point where the water accumulates, such as a lake, a river, or groundwater from an underground aquifer. Raw water may be transferred using uncovered ground-level aqueducts, covered tunnels, or underground water pipes to water purification facilities.
- Water purification facilities. Treated water is transferred using water pipes.
- Water storage facilities such as reservoirs, water tanks, or water towers. Smaller water systems may store the water in cisterns or pressure vessels. Tall buildings may also need to store water locally in pressure vessels in order for the water to reach the upper floors.
- Additional water pressurizing components such as pumping stations may need to be situated at the outlet of underground or aboveground reservoirs or cisterns.
- A pipe network for distribution of water to consumers and other usage points
- Connections to the sewers are generally found downstream of the water consumers, but the sewer system is considered to be a separate system, rather than part of the water supply system.
Toronto Water is the municipal division of the City of Toronto under Infrastructure and Development Services responsible for the water supply network, and stormwater and wastewater management in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as well as parts of Peel and York Regions.
The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority(DC Water) provides drinking water, sewage collection, and sewage treatment for Washington, D.C. The utility also provides wholesale wastewater treatment services to several adjoining municipalities in Maryland and Virginia, and maintains more than 9,000 public fire hydrants in Washington, D.C.
A combination of aqueducts, reservoirs, and tunnels supplies fresh water to New York City. With three major water systems stretching up to 125 miles (201 km) away from the city, its water supply system is one of the most extensive municipal water systems in the world.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission is a bi-county political subdivision of the State of Maryland that provides safe drinking water and wastewater treatment for Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland except for a few cities in both counties that continue to operate their own water facilities.
Musquodoboit Harbour is a rural community located in Nova Scotia, Canada within the Halifax Regional Municipality. The community is situated on the Eastern Shore at the mouth of the Musquodoboit River. The community lies 45 kilometres east of downtown Halifax. With a hospital, RCMP detachment, postal outlet, schools, recreational center, library, municipal office and other services, Musquodoboit Harbour is a serve centre for many of the surrounding communities.
Halifax Regional Municipality, formally known as Halifax is located in Nova Scotia, Canada. The municipality is governed by a mayor and a sixteen-person Regional Council, who are elected by geographic district; municipal elections occur every leap year.
Dallas Water Utilities (DWU) is the water and wastewater service operated by the City of Dallas, Texas, in the United States. DWU is a non-profit City of Dallas department that provides services to the city and 31 nearby communities, employs approximately 1450 people, and consists of 26 programs. DWU's budget is completely funded through the rates charged for water and wastewater services provided to customers. Rates are based on the cost of providing the services. The department does not receive any tax revenues. Primary authority and rules for the department are listed in Chapter 49 of the Dallas City Code.
Water supply and sanitation in the United States involves a number of issues including water scarcity, pollution, a backlog of investment, concerns about the affordability of water for the poorest, and a rapidly retiring workforce. Increased variability and intensity of rainfall as a result of climate change is expected to produce both more severe droughts and flooding, with potentially serious consequences for water supply and for pollution from combined sewer overflows. Droughts are likely to particularly affect the 66 percent of Americans whose communities depend on surface water. As for drinking water quality, there are concerns about disinfection by-products, lead, perchlorates, PFAS and pharmaceutical substances, but generally drinking water quality in the U.S. is good.
Clean Water Services is the water resources management utility for more than 600,000 residents in urban Washington County, Oregon and small portions of Multnomah County, Oregon and Clackamas County, Oregon, in the United States. Clean Water Services operates four wastewater treatment facilities, constructs and maintains flood management and water quality projects, and manages flow into the Tualatin River to improve water quality and protect fish habitat. They are headquartered in Hillsboro.
Water supply and sanitation in Canada is nearly universal and generally of good quality, but a lack of clean drinking water in many First Nations communities remains a problem. Water use in Canada is high compared to Europe, since water tariffs are low and 44% of users are not metered.
Harbour Solutions is a Canadian public infrastructure project in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Water supply and sanitation services in Ireland are governed primarily by the Water Services Acts of 2007 to 2014 and regulated by the Commission for Energy Regulation. Until 2015, the relevant legislation provided for the provision of water and wastewater services by local authorities in Ireland, with domestic usage funded indirectly through central taxation, and non-domestic usage funded via local authority rates. From 2015, the legislation provided for the setup of a utility company, Irish Water, which would be responsible for providing water and wastewater services, and funded through direct billing. The transition between these models, and certain aspects of operation of the new company, caused controversy in its initial period of operation.
Water supply and sanitation in Japan is characterized by numerous achievements and some challenges. The country has achieved universal access to water supply and sanitation; has one of the lowest levels of water distribution losses in the world; regularly exceeds its own strict standards for the quality of drinking water and treated waste water; uses an effective national system of performance benchmarking for water and sanitation utilities; makes extensive use of both advanced and appropriate technologies such as the jōkasō on-site sanitation system; and has pioneered the payment for ecosystem services before the term was even coined internationally. Some of the challenges are a decreasing population, declining investment, fiscal constraints, ageing facilities, an ageing workforce, a fragmentation of service provision among thousands of municipal utilities, and the vulnerability of parts of the country to droughts that are expected to become more frequent due to climate change.
Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, known shortly as CMWSSB, is a statutory board of Government of Tamil Nadu which provides water supply and sewage treatment to the city of Chennai and its metropolitan region.
The Philadelphia Water Department is the public water utility for the City of Philadelphia. PWD provides integrated potable water, wastewater, and stormwater services for Philadelphia and some communities in Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties. PWD is a municipal agency of the City of Philadelphia, and is seated in rented space at the Jefferson Tower in the Market East area of Center City, Philadelphia.
Upper Hammonds Plains is a Canadian suburban community located in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality.
The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) is a regional water authority in the U.S. state of Michigan. It provides drinking water treatment, drinking water distribution, wastewater collection, and wastewater treatment services for the Southeast Michigan communities, including Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties, among others. GLWA overlays a majority of the water and sewer assets which were formerly operated and maintained by the Detroit Water Sewer District (DWSD) prior to the bankruptcy of the City of Detroit, Michigan.
