Where your flush goes -- and what happens when it rains

It's Aug. 12. Follow your flush from home to the James River....and the environmental problems with stormwater overflows.

Clockwise From left...clarifiers, solid waste burner, ash remains of solid waste, control room. (Williamsburg Watch photos)

Recent talk about stormwater overflows led Williamsburg Watch to visit the wastewater treatment facility on the banks of the James River where everything you flush eventually ends up – and to see what happens when it rains.

The 40-acre facility, owned by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, normally handles eight to nine million gallons of water every day from James City County, Williamsburg, and York County, we were told by Christopher A. Stephan, HRSD’s chief of North Shore interceptor operations. It’s located between Carters Grove plantation and the Anheuser Busch brewery, which sends about a million gallons a day of nutrient-rich waste from its beer fermentation.

Heavy rain can push that flow to 46 million gallons, Stephan said, but the facility has enough backup capacity to handle it. The problem has been with pumping stations operated by the James City County Service Authority, which can get overwhelmed with too much water pressure when a major rainfall happens.

In May there were four spills in James City County and one in Williamsburg, Stephan said.