Flushed waste accounts for a large portion of Whitman College’s refuse output.  According to the City of Walla Walla, the Wastewater Treatment Plant processes approximately four to eight million gallons of wastewater everyday. During the summer, when water usage is at its peak, Walla Walla uses 22 million gallons of water per day. The Wastewater Treatment Plant, located on Mill Creek, is a subsidiary of the City of Walla Walla and overseen by several national and state agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology.

Once you flush your toilet or drain your sink, there are several steps to the treatment of this sewage. Sewage first goes through primary and secondary treatments that filter out solids. Next, solids are transported to a landfill, where they are picked up by local farmers to be used as fertilizer. The wastewater is treated with chlorine and UV rays and eventually released into two reservoirs: Mill Creek from December 1 to May 1, and the Blalock and Gose irrigation districts for the remainder of the year. However, the water is only treated for human waste and is not tested for chemicals from household cleaning products, drugs or other potential contaminants.

The Wastewater Treatment Plant is working with the city’s composting program to eventually make these biosolids available to the general public. According to officials at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, a partnership between the two departments would require the city to double their composting facility. As a result, the project has been put on the back burner due to city budget cuts.

The Campus Climate Challenge group is on a mission to reduce campus wastewater. New dual flush toilets have been installed in the Reid Campus Center bathrooms and will be implemented in the academic buildings and residence halls depending on the success of this trial run.