Our third Community Field Trip brought patrons an educational morning at Metro Water Recovery, opens a new window, learning about wastewater recovery, treatment and sustainability. After boarding a bus at Eloise May Library and traveling to the Robert W. Hite Treatment Facility, the morning started in Metro Water Recovery's board room, where our tour guides gave a brief presentation on the history of wastewater treatment and the South Platte River. We learned that Metro Water Recovery handles the waste from three of Arapahoe Libraries’ branches; Smoky Hill, Eloise May and Sheridan, making this out-of-sight process more personal.
Primary Clarification and Biological Nutrient Removal
The most impactful piece of information they shared was that wastewater used to be dumped straight into the river before the facility came along in the 1960s. When I heard this, I thought I understood the importance of the facility. We donned our PPE (personal protection equipment) and made our way to tour the facility itself, starting with the headworks where wastewater comes in. Everything from our sinks, showers and toilets flows here. It was a brown river, with a smell that didn’t leave me until my after-tour shower. My abstract understanding quickly turned concrete as I made my best effort for my insides to not come out and join in this reality. Without science, our river would be this color, this smell. Our human impact was felt twofold – our concrete mess, and our sophisticated attempt to solve it.
Secondary Clarification and Disinfection
The next stop was secondary treatment, the smell of waste already faded. The brown water bubbled from aeration and the parasitic amoebas that consume our waste, which Metro’s scientists had discovered worked even better than chlorine. That microscopic buffet sinks to the bottom and is turned into compost for farms in Deer Trail, closing the solids loop. There was something calming, almost holy about this section. Yellow and blue dragonflies swirled around the waters, as if curious or thankful. Patrons asked a flurry of science questions of our guides, leading them to comment that this was their most engaged group ever. It was as if we suddenly saw the role the mind plays in this process we would typically shield our eyes from, and our desire for understanding was like a faucet that couldn’t be turned off.
Outfall to the South Platte River
Our final stop on the tour was watching the water being treated and then returning to the South Platte River. The water was clear and lovely, and we watched happy ducks splash about. I thought about the water cycle and how naturally the earth moves this water from mountaintops to seas through rivers such as this. I thought of humans creating infrastructure to aid in the health of our nature, a natural process, because if this trip taught anything, it’s that humans are certainly natural, and that includes our designs. We heard from the team at Metro about how native fish and algae species have been returning to the river. I thought that no matter the form, pristine or mucky, water is water and it should be honored as such. For as disposable as we treat our mess, it is part of an everlasting cycle, one which is larger than life but not larger than our understanding.
Challenges to protecting our water feel more important than ever. Their abstract nature makes them feel out of our control. This field trip reminded me that no problem is too big that we can’t put our heads together to find a solution. It may not seem fun to look at, but this collaboration between the abstract and concrete is what humans are best at. As patrons smiled and laughed at the experience we all shared, my love for human nature flowed out of me, all renewed.
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