Capital Domes
- Posted by: ClaireHoworth , HochlanderDavis
- on December 8, 2006 at 11:46 am
Eight beautiful egg-shaped sewage treatment facilities will soon have a place in Washington, D.C.’s monument-filled skyline. These “digesters” will filter the area’s sludge (the solid parts of sewage, called “biosolids” in polite waste parlance) by churning rods that swirl the waste as microbes eat away the bacteria. The sludge will be converted into soil fertilizer for area farmers and purified water that will flow into the Potomac.
At the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in southwestern D.C., the new digesters—each measuring 303 feet at its waist and 108 feet in height—will process 350 tons of sludge a day. The new technology in the plant will decrease odor emissions, reduce the amount of treated sludge released into the environment, and produce enough methane in the process to provide 20 percent of the facility’s power. The angle-free design is to prevent sediment from settling, saving around $16 million a year in cleaning costs. Similar plants are in various stages of construction in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and San Francisco, but none are as aesthetically attuned as Washington’s giant new ova.
Suman Sorg, the architect hired by the city to design the $311 million digesters, made sure that their appearance did not reflect their industrial and unattractive function. “The eggs,” says Sorg, “will be seen not only from D.C., but from across the Potomac River and as you fly into Reagan National Airport. I think at night they will really look cool.”
DISCUSSION: 9 Comments
…as long as they’re not higher than the Washington Monument, they’re fine.
I wish I was as aesthetically attuned as these giant ova. Sigh.
This article leads the reader to believe that this style of sewage digester is under construction in Boston. Actually, the MWRA’s Deer Island sewage treatment plant has been operational for a few years already. I look at this thing all the time, and to be honest, I don’t find it all that attractive. I suppose it could be worse, but it’s certainly no brilliant aesthetic achievement. The egg shape is pure function–minimizing surface area at the top keeps the amount of liquid exposed to air down, thus reducing the amount of scum that develops.
A much better tactic would be to reduce the amount of sewage and stormwater coming into these things, which is the topic of another article.
To find out more, check out: http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/03sewer/html/sewditp.htm
At last…all that crap coming out of DC will finally be put to good use!
They’re already up in Greenpoint and they’re quite impressive in person.
What I like most about this project is the scope of it; this Thursday’s mp3 I do will use this as an example of just how large things have to be to clean up after us. I saw the one in New York (incomplete) and it’s a landscape changer.
‘Paying the piper’ is enormously past due and will require more large installations like the one in this article. I love it although it’s sad it’s come to this…
They look like post modern coffee makers
ERIC
Memorial gifts
this style of sewage digester is also already in use in Baltimore aka Dundalk, Maryland
Weren’t an identical set of these already built to serve New York? Newtown Creek water treatment plant: http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriabelanger/2811104311/in/set-72157606405008499/
D.C. is a good place to start, why there is so much cr– er, stuff there that more such facilities will need to be developed. In time the city would actually pay for itself,for once.