Well, I think we've all said about what we have to say about vegans and veganism.
Let introduce a new area of shame: central sewage processing.
Hah! You didn't expect that, did you?
I own 3 houses, 2 are currently on central sewer, the Whidbey house has its own onsite sewage processing, better known as a septic system.
With a septic system, gray water and black water go into a central tank, sits for a few days, feeding anaerobic bacteria, and then flows to a second tank, where the same thing happens, then the effluent goes into a drain field. In my case, that is a large underground chamber where it spills on the biomat, feeding aerobic bacteria, then filters into the ground water. Slowly, it filters through the ground, until it gets pumped back up as drinking water at my well, or goes to a stream, or drops down to sea level.
That's a bit horrifying, isn't it?
But I was there for the installation of the system, and have gone out and inspected at all the inspection ports, and what I saw was not at all what I imagined. For one thing, the vast majority of our waste is gray water. For another, by the time it clears the tanks, effluent is clear, with little smell. There was no smell or effluent in the drain field. But consider that nothing goes to the drain field any faster than you use water in the house. So if my wife did laundry, and ran the dishwasher while showering (never happen, my wife hates changes of water pressure in the shower), then about 3-4 gallons per minute would go to my drain field, where it would feed bacteria.
Contrast this with central sewage. Everything goes into a pipe, where it gets dumped in the first pond. (Just like my primary tank) After enough time, it gets pumped to a second pond, that has a big pump, to add oxygen. This is like my second tank and drain field in one. Then it gets pumped into the river.
Wait, I hear you say, pumped where? Directly into the river. Almost all sewage plants are right on the river fronts. That's where the lowest local point is, so it works with gravity, and rivers do such a fine job of making all that water go away.
Now effluent is not drinking water. There will be some dissolved chemicals the bacteria can't use. Of primary concern is bioavailable nitrogen.
Bioavailable nitrogen is the pollutant that causes such havoc in water systems, because it is basically dumping fertilizer. This causes massive growth in aquatic plants, which increases dosolved oxygen. But, the dumping isn't constant, and the growth/death rates of the aquatic plants is faster than the nitrogen cycle, causing a huge buildup of dead vegetation, causing a massive spike in bacteria growth, which again has a faster growth/death cycle faster than the fertilizer cycle.
These dead and decaying bateria then cause a drop in dissolved oxygen. This results in fish kills.
I started looking into this when I couldn't go fishing at my usual camping spot on the hood canal. The hood canal, in the Puget sound had such low oxygen, the deepwater fish were swimming, eyes bulging from pressure change, within 20 feet of the surface. Dead fish floated up to the beaches. Most inland saltwater fisheries have experienced this and more.
This is nothing new. We have been doing this for decades, and blaming landowners for using too much fertilizer. Or soap (soap is high in nitrogen, has a short shelf life, and sure makes a good villain, in that we can blame soap, and nobody will change anything.)
Now that may seem a bit paranoid/conspiracy theorist, but it is the only way I have found to understand the actions, and inaction, of our local governments.
Here is a link to a study of nitrogen in the Puget sound:
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/Nitr ... easonality
You see how the discharge from central sewage processing accounts for between 60-80 percent of the nitrogen problem?
Let me say that again, 60-80 percent. 60 percent in the winter, when it isn't as bad, and 80 percent in the summer, the worst time to dump fertilizer into the river.
So it's fair to say we know why we have a problem, and where it's coming from.
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/puget_sound/whatyoucando.html
The the dept of ecology sums this up on the "what you can do" page: "Puget Sound faces many threats. More than 60 percent of water pollution comes from things like cars leaking oil; fertilizers and pesticides from farms, lawns and gardens; faulty and aging septic systems; pet waste; and fuel spills from recreational boaters."
Hmm. Yeah, probably better not to mention sewage processing plants.
In the future, someone will have to explain why we built our cities with the intent to shit in the rivers. But the embarrassing part will be why nobody has a problem with it.