SANITARY SEWAGE SYSTEMS AT FREEWAY REST AREAS

The Michigan Department of Transportation policy of providing modern flush type sanitary facilities at all freeway rest areas requires that sewage treatment and disposal facilities be constructed wherever a municipal sewer is not available. Septic tanks for treatment and drainfields to polish and dispose of the effluent have been the preferred facility when the soil and landscape characteristics are satisfactory. When conditions are not satisfactory, other land treatment systems can be designed to fit the particular site characteristics. This project was a study of four land treatment systems which were designed to polish and dispose of lagoon effluents at four exiting rest areas. The systems included a overland flow-evapotranspiration system, a barriered landscape water renovation system on a shallow water table, a seepage pond on a fine-textured soil with a shallow water table and a long vegetated ditch. Chemical and biological analyses were made on the effluents before and after land treatments as well as on the soil and aquifer water. All systems polished and disposed of the wastewater in a environmentally and public healthwise acceptable manner that was cost effective. The preferred and often required methods of spreading wastewater on land treatment systems is with sprinklers. An intensive laboratory and field study of aerosol transport showed that with low-pressure, low-angle sprinklers which produce a large drop size and with the judicious use of vegetation to reduce wind, the potential for airborne infection from vegetative bacterial aerosols is minimal. (FHWA)

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Alternate title: Sewage Treatment Systems at Freeway Rest Areas.
• Corporate Authors:

  Michigan State University, East Lansing

  Department of Crop and Soil Sciences
  East Lansing, MI  United States  48824

  Michigan Department of Transportation

  State Transportation Building, 425 West Ottawa Street, P.O. Box 30050
  Lansing, MI  United States  48909

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Erickson, A E
  • Davis, Matthew L
• Publication Date: 1982-12

Media Info

• Pagination: 264 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cost effectiveness; Environmental protection; Freeways; Irrigation; Lagoons; Ponding; Public health; Roadside rest areas; Seepage; Septic tanks; Sewage treatment; Sewerage structures; Waste disposal; Watering
• Uncontrolled Terms: Ponds; Sprinklers
• Old TRIS Terms: Freeway rest areas
• Subject Areas: Design; Environment; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Planning and Forecasting; Terminals and Facilities; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00373127
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA-MI-81-1 Final Rpt.
• Contract Numbers: 0010(3)
• Files: TRIS, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jun 30 1983 12:00AM