engineering

Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility

Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility rather than just read about it. In short: The Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility is a wastewater treatment plant located on Jones Island along the Lake Michigan shore in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1974.

Key takeaways

Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility is a wastewater treatment plant located on Jones Island along the Lake Michigan shore in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1974.

History and operation

Since 1926, the Jones Island facility has both been in operation and has been producing the fertilizer Milorganite as a byproduct of the wastewater treatment process. It was one of the first wastewater treatment plants to be constructed in the United States, as well as one of the first to produce a marketable fertilizer. Prior to the completion of the plant, sewage and industrial waste in Milwaukee were both discharged directly into Lake Michigan. In 1936, a "mysterious epidemic" that affected 120,000 people in Milwaukee, roughly 20% of the city's population at the time, was ultimately linked to contaminated water that had been discharged from the Jones Island facility without being treated. The epidemic was successfully ended by a boil-water advisory. In 1972, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) commended the plant for implementing phosphorus-removal capabilities ahead of schedule. In 1989, due to the release of cyanide and metals from the facility into Lake Michigan, the EPA included it on a list of 879 industrial facilities around the country that were not meeting government standards regarding the release of chemicals into waterways. In 1997, United Water Resources signed a ten-year contract with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) to manage the Jones Island facility, creating the largest public–private partnership in the United States at the time. Currently owned by MMSD, the plant is operated and managed by Veolia as part of an ongoing public-private partnership. It is one of two wastewater treatment plants serving the Milwaukee metropolitan area, along with a facility in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

Wastewater treatment

As of 2015, the Jones Island facility can treat over 300,000,000 US gallons (1.1×109 L) of wastewater daily. It serves 1.1 million people in 28 municipalities throughout Southeastern Wisconsin. The plant sits at the end of a network that includes 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of household laterals, another 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of sanitary sewers, and the 28.5-mile (45.9 km) Deep Tunnel Project, the latter of which can hold 521,000,000 U.S. gallons (1.97×109 L) of wastewater and largely prevents overflow events. Milwaukee uses a combined sewer system, which brings both sewage and urban runoff to the Jones Island facility to be treated before the water is discharged into Lake Michigan. Wastewater takes about 24 hours to travel to the treatment plant, be treated, and then be discharged into the lake. The water returned to the lake from the plant is cleaner than the lake water itself. At the Jones Island facility, wastewater treatment begins with screening, followed by primary clarification in circular holding tanks. Water then travels to storage channels where bacteria (including Aspidisca, Arcella, and Vorticella) digest the remaining impurities in the wastewater. The bacteria have a short lifespan, and the sludge containing the dead bacteria is dried, heated (at 900 °F (482 °C) to 1,200 °F (649 °C)), and tumbled to a uniform size to make Milorganite. As of 2017, the plant was producing roughly 45,000 tons of Milorganite a year. Its production is considered to be one of the largest recycling programs in the world, and it surpasses the EPA's "Exceptional Quality" rating and is certified by the United States Department of Agriculture due to its renewable origins.

Tours By 2015, more than 20,000 members of the public have toured the Jones Island facility, many at the annual Doors Open Milwaukee event. Tours are a major part of MMSD's outreach and public education program. In the mid-2010s, more than 4,000 people were touring the facility annually.

References

External links Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility on Atlas Obscura

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility

In research: Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1926 establishments in Wisconsin, Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks, Lake Michigan, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility in simple terms?

Why does Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility.