h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

howdy fellow WW worker. i put wastewater in the search, never expecting any hits, and there it was. i work in wellington new zealand, at our fairly new (4 years) old wastewater treatment plant. as the process technician. anyway just thought i'd say hi.

Robin - this guy seems to be defunct, but I am workingon the University Project on Waste Water. It was written by Holle Polle, who is German, and, although I worked in the field (sales admin) for seven years, there is still some technical terminology I'm not sure on.

Please look at them and help me with sentences like : Acids or bases, eventually forming and reforming salts, are soluted.

Bases wasn't a word we used when I was at school for the "opposite" of acid, and, although I understand why he wanted another word for dissolved, I am sure the word "soluted" is an invention. So I am going to change this sentence.

I am still fascinated by the subject, which is why I volunteered to edit the Project. I worked for Allied Colloids (which is not advertising, because the firm does not exist any more) which was taken over by a large Swiss Chemicals Holding. As a secretary in sales admin, I wouldn't have needed to know much about sewage treatment at all, but being English I was given lots to translate "on the side" and also had lots of phone calls with the chemists in Bradford, so I picked up more than the other girls. Organic chemistry had interested me at school, and I quickly picked up where I left off, but with the added bonus of learning about the machines used and the stages of waste water treatment.

Apart from which, I found that this was a worthwhile industry to be involved with, as there will always be sewage to treat, and, if approached properly, you do your bit for the environment, too, although I was never quite sure about this. However, the amount of waste water that the world produces, someone's gotta do it. And our reps were just the greatest guys - I always said, if you're up to your elbows in s**t all day, you just gotta have a sense of humour.

What do you do and do you think you could glance at all those entries for me (about the first six that come up when you search for waste water. Or you go to Holle Polle at his personal space and call up all the entries from there.

i'll have a look, and try my best.

i work as the "process technician" which basically means i look after the bugs that do the work, and get in the operators way. all good fun and i do get a sense of satisfaction from the job. i must admit that some of the s**t jokes can be pretty funny.

biological bugs?

well i had a quick look, and it's a bit schetcy. plus it's hard to know where to aim the information. i found it hard because it was so simple but others may find bits of it difficult. i think it's going to take more time than i first anticipated.
for example
-i'd call comps "screen" as they screen out the non-biological particulates.
- biological bugs is abit of a double up on words. there bugs (which is a term i use often when not talking to technical people) so they must be biological.

i'm away for a week so it will be awhile bvefore i get to have a proper look at this.

I know - it's hard to reduce something you know a lot about to a level and an amount suitable for someone to digest (Ha! a pun!) if that person has absolutely no idea. You would probably be hard put to write a concise entry about New Zealand, I expect.

Perhaps you can limit the comments to checking the English and the technospeak - and correcting any serious factual boobs if needs be.

Have a nice time while you're away, wherever that is!

BTW - *had* you heard of Allied Colloids? There is a manufacturing plant in Australia, too.

Allied colloids does ring a small bell. but it was probably from over hearing a conversation about the plant. according to one of the operators that just walked into the lab, they make polymer for coagulation solids.

i'm off to brisbane for a course on BNR, which is a type of wastewater treatment.

Can we keep the technical conversation all in one thread. I've been finding bits all over the place. The best place would be here http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F57705?thread=88447&post=721123#p721123

Hello Robin, I am Moatas. I, too, work with and sometimes in wastewater. I live in the state of Michigan, somewhere in America.
I work for a small private company that operates, repairs, builds, etc. small water and wastewater systems.
Among our clients are some Lagoons, Activated Sludge and S.B.R. plants. Not to mention the many and different lift stations we service (fix). I primarily work with drinking water, but ofter will work with both types of water in one day. The Boss likes to call it "New and Used Water". I hope to see you around the guide, or feel free to leave a message on 'my space'. (I feel like a Klingon saying that) Your friend and Mine, Moatas

I'm sorry I didn't respond sooner. I've had a full plate of late in my personal and professional life. In a world where you can chat with someone from anywhere in the world, instantly, this method seems a bit slow. We call the bacteria 'bugs' too and we often use Ferric Acid to gather up the suspended solids. In our lab, we check the waste samples for B.O.D's among other things, (I'm a field tech). Again, I'm sorry I wasn't checking my 'page'. I will make the effort to check more often. Say 'Hi' to Trillian for me plese.

I'm here, watching. And with a guilty conscience the size of the Titanic because I haven't been getting on with the University Project. Moatas - will be grateful if you could have a look at the entries at present. They are on my home space, re-written and called "Test Entry for Holle Polle". The links in the entries still take you back to HP's original entries, but I have polished up the writing a bit and padded out a few points that I think an outsider might need a bit more help with.