Feather Going Down & Turning Brown

[Darian]

Dabalone,.... Who are you quoting The statement is a bit confusing. Does the pipe extend six feet under or on top of Shanghai Bend

If I recall the river in that area, there's a good sized, deep hole above the falls and below it the river becomes more channelized. I'm no expert but it seems to me that the shallow area of the falls might be the only practical area for placement of the pipe, But.... Too bad it had to break. Hopefully it'll be repaired quickly....

[Dabalone]

Dabalone,.... Who are you quoting The statement is a bit confusing. Does the pipe extend six feet under or on top of Shanghai Bend

If I recall the river in that area, there's a good sized, deep hole above the falls and below it the river becomes more channelized. I'm no expert but it seems to me that the shallow area of the falls might be the only practical area for placement of the pipe, But.... Too bad it had to break. Hopefully it'll be repaired quickly....

Darian, I agree the six feet under statement is confusing. Was taken from a news article I pulled up and it did not go on to explain in any detail what they meant. The other quote was from some watch dog group in pdf form trying to determine if the waste water was being diffused and spread out correctly.

So piecing the info together and being vague on the area in question this is what I get. The waste water was treated and coming from the Yuba City side, the pipe entered the river somewhere across from the Shanghai falls, not sure if the six feet under means the pipe was six feet under the river bed or just six feet deep at that location but it ends up connecting to some type of diffuser in the center of the pool above the falls. Where the break occurred I was not able to find out but I assume it was somewhere before it connected to the diffuser what ever that looks like.

I wonder how many people knew treated waste water was being released in the center of the river all these years just above a very popular fishing hole.

[Darian]

Thanks for the clarification. I know sometimes it's hard to put shards of info together.... I'm guessing that the diffuser is what disperses treated fluids into the river in a manner that dilutes it even further with river water (which, after all, is not potable anyway). If that's the case, wouldn't that be a good thing???

In any case, the break doesn't appeart to have hurt the fish....

[Kevin Goding]

Yes the diffuser is usually just a pipe with a bunch of holes in it that lays across the bottom of the channel. So there is more at source diffusion of the effluent itself, and also spreads out the discharge engergy of the effluent to lessen erosion effects and such. Secondary treated water is mostly safe as it is chlorinated, and most of the valley streams at some point or another probably has an effluent discharge on it somewhere from a waste water treatment plant.

[Tony Buzolich]

I don't believe the pipe that broke was meant to defuse anything. If you Google a map of the area take a look at the opposite side of the river from Yuba City and slightly downstream. What you'll see is holding ponds where the "treated" sewage is supposed to go and I believe evaporate. Even though the ponds are on the other side of the river it is still a part of Sutter county.
Tony

[Darian]

After checking the websites for Yuba City/County and Marysville and reading the article in the Appeal Democrat, again, I think it might be that we're all correct.

I'm thinking that the Marysville sewage treatment facility was the primary system for that area and built the collection/evaporation ponds and included a diffuser. Yuba City just connected to that system in order to reduce the cost of building a separate system. Good strategy but....

Thinking out loud, here, looks like treated effluent is supposed to be piped under the river in one pipe to the collecting ponds on the Marysville side and treated once more over there(?). Then it's sent back thru another pipe to be dispersed into the river via the diffuser. Probably, part of the dispersal plan is the evaporation that takes place from the ponds.

If that's correct, one step in the treatment process is missing, now, as the break occurred in the pipe transporting the partially treated effluent to the settling ponds. It's still treated water; just not the highest quality....

[Dabalone]

Darian, out of curiosity since this subject came up I tried getting some kind of accurate picture of the sewage infrastructure for both cities and drew blanks. I believe you are correct in that the two systems are connected just not sure exactly how and which one it is depending on the other. Try google earth, you can get a satellite view and close up of treatment plants on both sides of the river. They are both in close proximity of Shang Hai bend, one thing I found interesting is all the large evaporation ponds on the East side which are built on the "river" side of the levee, I am sure the Feds have final say on any infrastructure especially sewage treatment being built in a flood plain. Surprised they would allow any open sewage treatment (evaporation ponds) where the river floods. Where are the environmentalists?

[Darian]

I wasn't able to find a diagram of the systems either. Some of what I've concluded is based on planning documents for each city/county. From the location of the ponds on the Marysville (side) system and the diffuser being the terminous of that one, I'm thinking that the Marysville system was constructed first. The Yuba City system being upstream from the Marysville system gives me the impression that Sutter County and Yuba City probably elected to connect rather than construct a separate system. Then again, it could be a joint powers venture between the two counties and both cities. Of course, this is all conjecture on my part but either seems plausible.

Placement of the ponds near the levee was probably a function of proximity to the diffuser and a cost/benefit analysis that indicated location further from the river would involve acquiring additional land, driving up the cost. For all we know, the environmental community may've objected but their concerns overcome by whatever....

Again, just a guess on my part.