If everyone in the United States flushed the can at the same fourth dimension , gutter systems across the country would be overwhelmed with wastewater .

Nov. 19 isWorld Toilet Day , a time to reflect upon how far modern sanitization has come . In the United States in 2005 , less than half of one percent of the commonwealth ’s more than 124 million family did n’t have a flushing bathroom [ source : U.S. Census Bureau ] . In comparison , 71 percent of India ’s full universe of more than one billion hoi polloi had no entree to a toilet that same year . There were an estimated 350 million public and privatetoiletsin the United States by the mid-1990s [ source : Flushmate ] – a lot of toilets by anyone ’s touchstone . So what would hap if everyone in the United States decided to flush their toilets at the same fourth dimension in celebration of World Toilet Day ?

Since as far as we could witness out – no one ’s ever tried it before – we ca n’t say for certain exactly what would happen . But we can take a pretty unspoiled guess : " It would be ugly , " say Steve Cox , one sewer water treatment adeptness operator we interviewed .

The modal home in America is outfitted withsewerpipes around four inches in diameter . The pipes from your abode are connected to arm systems , which link together at street systems . Street systems tie into route systems , which go to main road systems , and , ultimately , barren discourse plants . Underneath your town is a wastewater system as complex as a wanderer ’s WWW .

The nearer you get to the treatment plant , the larger the inside diam of the piping becomes . So a four - in pipe from your house connects to a 12 - column inch organ pipe and so on , until – in larger cities – pipes may be almost 10 base in diameter . A pipe this size of it can hold a lot of water , but can it keep enough for everyone to flush at once ?

­If everyone in each of Milwaukee , Wisconsin ’s 330,584 households all flushed just one toilet at the same prison term , and each of those toilette oust 3.5 gallons per flush , then Milwaukee ’s sewer system would all of a sudden be inundated with 1,157,044 gallons of wastewater [ source : NexTag ] . Even with the city ’s fresh 108 - inch pipes , this could be a problem , and we ’re not even counting all of the public toilets in the metropolis .

Of course , the land is n’t take down underneath many metropolis , and to overwhelm change in aggrandizement , sewerage system uselift stations , wastewater plants that push sewage uphill toward its final treatment finish . These Stations of the Cross would be the first overwhelmed by consentaneous flushing . There would simply be too much wastewater trying to conk through the tube at the same time – kind of like trying to force an orange through a imbibing wheat – and the current of sewerage would cease . Sewage already past the lift station would give back downhill , and as the lift stations flood , the line leading to them would back up .

Eventu­ally this sewage would find its way to the place where this whole drubbing spring up – your base . Backflow valves probably would n’t help . Not only would your toilet overflow , but so , too , would every wastewater line in your home plate , including your shower , kitchen and bathroom sinks , and even yourdishwasherandwashing auto .

Outside , the manhole covers dotting the street would also deluge and well over , leaving people in sewerage peradventure more than mortise joint mystifying . Depending on how many people live in your city and how large the sewerage tobacco pipe are , it could be even worse .

But with low - rate of flow toilets , this scenario would n’t be quite so tough .

Low-flow Toilets: A Lot Less Mess

If everyone in Milwaukee conducted the same experimentation from the first page using onlylow - flowtoilets , only 528,934 gallons of effluent would on the spur of the moment deluge the city’ssewersystem . This would still have quite a mountain , but it would correct itself much faster , and the water pressure would equate more speedily , too .

But humbled - flow toilets were n’t contrive to pull through Milwaukee from a public wellness hazard and an environmental cataclysm . They were designed to economise piddle . And they have become so worthful at do this purpose that they have replaced traditional toilets in stores . In fact , it is Union police force that no toilet may be produced in the United States that uses more than 1.6 gal per flush .

When they were first introduce in the early nineties , low-down - flow ( or low - flush ) toilets were accept warily by consumer in the United States . They clogged easily , and even when the toilette did n’t back up , they often failed to do their job on the first endeavour . Some consumer griped that they had to flush the toilet more than once . If a homeowner had to flush a low - flow toilet three clock time , then he or she used 4.8 gallons , more than a gallon more than with a traditional toilet .

Some Americans became so run up with low - menses toilets that they crossed the northerly border into Canada to purchase 3.5 - gallon toilets , since none were usable for sale back in the States . But grim - stream technology has improved since the ' 90s , and the next generation of low - flow toilets appears to combine improved function with water conservation .

The United States Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) suggest that consumer in the mart for a can should look for theWaterSenselabel . This certification is given to toilets that use no more than 1.28 gallons per flush , swan by testing at independent science laboratory .

The EPA estimates that the average American will even the toilet around 140,000 times in his or her lifetime . Since the amount of usable water system has become a literal event in the United States in the preceding few years , low - stream toilets are helping to allay a growing problem . The EPA is not the only governmental representation advance Americans to interchange their bathroom with low - flow toilet : Some American municipalities are offering $ 50 and $ 100 rebates as incentives for homeowners to make the switch . If everyone in the United States used only WaterSense toilets , the rural area would hold open an estimated 900 million gallon of water per day , adequate to roughly twenty bit of flow overNiagara Falls[source : EPA ] .

Just the savings alone ( around $ 90 per twelvemonth on your water vizor ) is rationality enough for many citizenry . But do n’t forget to take into history that if everyone switch to WaterSense bathroom , it would edit out the amount of peck do by everyone flushing their gutter at the same time by more than one-half . And avoiding ankle - abstruse sewage is undecomposed for everyone .

For more information on john and sewers , be sure to visit the links that follow .

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