Beneath the streets of every city and many smaller communities, a system of sewers and pumps conveys wastewater away from homes, factories, offices, and stores. This disposed water, which may contain a variety of domestic, commercial, and industrial wastes, flows through the sewers to a wastewater treatment plant. There, pollutants are removed and the cleansed water is discharged into an adjacent water body, such as a river or stream, or in a few cases a wetland area.
Industrial plants are only one of the many sources of wastewater discharged into municipal sewers.
These wastes can pose serious hazards. The undesirable effects resulting from the discharge of industrial wastewater into municipal sewers can be prevented. Industrial plants, using proven pollution control technologies, can remove pollutants from their wastewaters before discharging them into the municipal sewage treatment system.