Archive for November 13th, 2026
Alcosan visit, too
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To start – don’t get all Triskaidekaphobic about today being Friday the 13th, yo. Unlucky for you might mean lucky for someone else. You lose your wallet, somebody else finds it. The Great Material Continuum swirls.
Second: this one picks up and continues from yesterday’s post, wherein your humble narrator was visting the gigantic Alcosan Wastewater Treatment Plant here in Pittsburgh, during a public ‘Open House’ event.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our guide, that fellow in the blue shirt with the excellent mustache, was moving us around the plant, from building to building and describing the functions of the versions systems. In this shot, we had moved to a high up location in a different building nearby the pump house, and we were in the ‘Surge Tower’ where the raw ‘honey’ enters the plant.
I didn’t get a decent shot of the actual flow, but if you’re curious…
Btw, people in the wastewater treatment trades commonly call refer to the flow as ‘honey,’ or least they do in the sewer plants of NYC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The final stop of the plant tour included a visit to their clean water return system.
The water in this area was described to us as being ‘as clean as it can humanly get.’
Our guide made it a point of saying that due to the various treatment processes feeding to this final aeration stage, the returning waters are quite a bit purer than those of the Ohio River which they were about to adjoin. Nearby the return was a fishing boat, with lines in the water.
This enormous spill way setup was where we exited the shuttle buses at the western extent of the Alcosan Plant.
It was kind of loud. Sounded like waterfalls and river rapids.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Below us was that final aeration step, right before the release point back into the Ohio. Downstream from here, the Ohio River is the source of drinking water for around 45 million Americans, as a note.
As mentioned, my neighbor Sam – who had driven us here from Dormont – had disappeared into the ether, and I wouldn’t see him again for days. Also as mentioned, ‘that’s Sam for ya.’
The plan for the rest of my morning would involve scuttling.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Really do wish that my circumstance on this morning could have involved using a tripod and lens filters.
That shot above would look ‘sweeeet’ as a 20- 30 second exposure.
We were asked to head back to the shuttle bus by our guide at this point. It was somebody else’s turn to experience all this.
Really, this was so much fun for me.
A weird face cramp occurred, wherein the sides of my mouth curled upwards, and my eyebrows relaxed out of their normal scowling position. A hideous imposture of a human smile, I guess, but that’s the best one such as myself can manage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It sort of penetrated through the dull gray monologue of normal life, this experience. One such as myself requires outré external stimulation such as this occasionally. It’d been a while since we went to the coal mine.
Back next week with something different.
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Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
