If it goes down your drain, it goes in the system. Whether it’s a commercial use or residential, if it goes down your toilet, shower or sink drain, it will end up at the treatment plant for processing. We call this wastewater.Once the wastewater goes down the drain, it enters the property’s sewer lateral which then connects to the City’s public sewer main. Once the wastewater reaches the sewer main, it makes its journey to the Laguna Treatment Plant, located on Llano Road via larger “trunk sewer” lines.
Wastewater enters the Laguna Treatment Plant through a pipe system from urban homes, businesses and industry. Solids removed from rural septic systems are combined with the wastewater at the head of the treatment plant.
The pipe system depends largely on gravity. A gentle slope in increasingly larger pipes moves wastewater to the plant. Tanker trucks bring septic wastes to the plant for treatment. Each day these two sources contribute 18 million gallons of wastewater to the plant, which also accommodates additional water during storms.
The sewer system is different from the storm drain system. The City’s storm drains are not designed for “wastewater” and the storm drains do not go to the treatment plant, but to creeks and waterways.