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So we all want to live in a safe and healthy environment.
King County ensures that health and safety
by cleaning our water.
All of the water comes out of the household
and goes down the drains.
Your sinks, your showers, your toilets, washing machines,
all this water goes to a local treatment plant to be cleaned.
To understand how we clean water,
you just need to know how nature does it.
We really do the same thing, only
we do it a lot faster using engineering technology.
In nature, plants on the water's edge slow down the water
and clean out all of the leaves, rock, and other debris.
We do the same thing in our treatment facilities,
only we use large screens.
Then the cleaning process begins.
And gravity filters out the solids, sand, and solid pieces,
just like in nature.
We filter and disinfect the water at our treatment plants.
Then we send some of the water back to Puget Sound,
and the rest is disinfected even more,
and becomes what is known as recycled water
for the purposes of irrigation and street cleaning.
King County doesn't just clean the water,
we also take out all of the solid materials.
We transform those same solids using big heated tanks called
digesters.
An army of microorganisms break down organic matter,
store the nutrients while killing the harmful bacteria,
and breaking down any pollutants,
just like in nature.
Those microorganisms release what's called a biogas.
The biogas is then utilized to heat the plant,
as well as to create electricity.
Those microorganisms transform the solids
into what we call loop biosolids, which
is a nutrient rich fertilizer used for agricultural purposes.
Plants use these nutrients to grow.
Animals eat the plants.
And the cycle starts all over again.
It's an amazing thing that we can create biogas,
recycled water, biosolids, out of the things
that we flush down our toilet and through our drains.
We test and monitor the entire process
and all of the final products to ensure that our engineering
technologies matches those of nature itself
and its cleaning power.
This endless, renewable cycle is creating resources
from wastewater, just like nature does.
And when you see how recycled water can help conserve water
in our rivers and streams, and what loop biosolids can
do for our soil and plants, and the amount of renewable energy
we harness, then you really see the wonderful advances
of engineering technology and innovation,
which is used to keep our environment safe and healthy.