WEF Highlights

Operator reunites a resident with an heirloom that sat in a manhole for 9 years Collection systems employees at the City of Somers Point, N.J., found the proverbial needle in a haystack, or more precisely, the ring in a sewer system. In November, Ted Gogol, wastewater operator and Somers Point public works crew chief, was […]

Employees have retrieved quite the variety of items from the two water resource recovery facilities operated by the City of Moline (Ill.) Water Pollution Control Division. The lost-and-found list includes toys, construction equipment, animals, drugs (likely flushed during police raids), and a $50 bill that paid for a staff pizza lunch. The most valuable item […]

At least to some, wastewater treatment personnel are real-life superheroes. Union Sanitary District (USD; Union City, Calif.) Collection Services employees saved the day for Mehvish Tapal and her family after an heirloom was flushed down the toilet in early October 2014. After Tapal realized that her 3-year-old son flushed a ring that had been in […]

Maintenance Crews in Pacifica, Calif., find a gold engagement ring   The average person would be shocked to hear about the myriad of odd things found inside collection systems and water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). Some finds seem so far-fetched they enter the realm of urban legend, but the stories are true. Wastewater treatment operators […]

Everyone knows that Florida is full of alligators. Sometimes they even visit wastewater treatment plants. In May, operators at the Main Street Water Reclamation Facility in Gainesville, Fla., found a 9.5-ft-long scaly visitor lurking in one of the clarifiers. Get the rest of the story in the July issue of Water Environment & Technology.