08/12/2026
Happy Wastewater Wednesday EVERYBODY!!!!
We hope everyone is having a great day! We are almost to the end of our Wastewater Wednesday Road Trip! Just one more stop after this one, so hang on tight. Apparently this trip has turned into a three-hour tour. Hopefully ours doesn't end with us stranded on an island.
This week, we have LANDED ON THE SAND FILTER BEDS! And wouldn't you know it… there are SEVEN of them. Seven! Which means we have officially discovered the Gilligan's Island of wastewater. We have seven beds just like seven castaways, except our residents don't have names like Gilligan, the Skipper, the Professor, Mary Ann, Ginger, Mr. Howell and Mrs. Howell. Ours are mostly known by names like “Bed 1,” “Bed 2,” and “Don't Put Anything In That One, We're Working On It.”
One of our seven beds is used only for sludge from the digester or a tank. Four are used during the warmer months while we are chlorinating, and two are used only during the winter. We rotate them out for maintenance as needed because apparently even a sand filter bed eventually says, “I need a vacation.”
Norfolk Sewer District has used some form of sand filter beds since DAY NUMBER ONE. The technology has changed over the years, but the basic idea remains the same. Water from the clarifier flows through pipes into one of the beds, which are made up of layers of sand and gravel. The water slowly perks down through those layers while phosphorus, solids and other impurities are removed. Basically, the water gets stranded on an island and somehow comes out 90–99% clean. That's what we call tertiary treatment.
Underneath all that sand is a network of piping that collects the cleaned-up water and sends it to our next stop: the Chlorine Contact Chamber! So unlike the original Gilligan's Island, we actually have a pretty good idea where we're going next.
Of course, being stranded on an island means you have to get creative. On Gilligan's Island, they somehow made radios out of coconuts. If the Norfolk Sewer District crew were stranded on an island, we'd probably try that too. It would not work. We'd spend three days trying to figure out which end of the coconut was the antenna, somebody would accidentally drink the battery, and eventually we'd just yell at a passing boat. So we're pretty happy to have actual pipes, equipment and electricity.
Now here's the really important part. Once all the water has worked its way through the sand, everything that was removed from the water is left behind on the beds. And what do those solids do? Absolutely nothing. They sit there, soak up the sun, enjoy the view and basically live the dream while the rest of us are still working.
Eventually their vacation comes to an end. Once everything is nice and dry, we bring out the tractor, scoop everything up, and it gets composted according to our permit.
So there you have it! Seven sand filter beds, seven wastewater castaways, one very questionable island, and a whole lot of sand doing some very important work. The good news is that our crew actually knows how to get off the island. The bad news is that somebody still has to drive the tractor.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is another stop on the Wastewater Wednesday Road Trip!
Take it easy, everybody!
And if you happen to find that lost shaker of salt, please return it to the Sand Filter Beds. They've been stranded since 1897 and we're starting to think they might need it.
