We started off the day with a delicious breakfast at the hotel (I might steal a full loaf of bread tomorrow). After that, we headed right off to play in the sewers. I’ve never really put much thought behind wastewater treatment, but this visit has helped me to learn all the design and consideration that must go into treating water. There were a few things that really caught my attention. To start, the actual location of the treatment plant was designed to be at the lowest point in the city so that they could use gravity to drain the water. They also used steam powered pumps even though electricity was available right around the time of construction, ensuring that the plant could still run in power outages. I also thought it was interesting and somewhat inefficient all the manpower that was required in repetitive tasks like scrapping large solids; however, the plant was continuously upgraded with equipment that helped to eliminate some of this need over the years. Finally, the treatment facility considered the farmers wants with things such as chemicals and sludge size, as they were the ones who purchased the treated waste to be used as fertilizer. Although it is out of service now, the plant is still structurally intact, but the population of Prague exceeded its capacity, making it easier to build a new plant.
We also saw a really cute dog leaving the plant who would howl when we pet him. After the sewers tour, we went to Charles University for a lecture on Czech engineering history and a language class. The guys and I spent our free time walking around and ended up in the National Museum before dinner to end the day!
Swanson School of Engineering 