About

This is a collection of information related to the history of wastewater treatment and sometimes sewerage. The focus is on Ontario, Canada but other interesting things are added from time-to-time.

The intent is to have the information in an accessible text format rather than OCR PDF scans of the original documents.

All information posted here is publicly available and often comes from the Internet Archives. Links to the sources are provided where available.

Why are you doing this?

Autism, probably.

Now I feel weird for asking…

Okay… I am very interested in the history of wastewater treatment in general, but specifically in Ontario where I practice as a wastewater engineer. I know that there are others who are also interested in these things. Instead of spamming people’s emails with my treasures, I have decided to put them online so that they are easy to find and so that an even larger community of poop nerds can find them.

The other reason is that I maintain a personal archive of these files and I wanted a nice way to index the contents. I refer to some of them in the course of my professional work and would one day like to contribute to the body of work that chronicles the history of wastewater treatment in the region.

Where do you find these files?

Right now I am focused on cataloging items I have found on the Internet Archives. I seek to provide a link or links to the original content so that readers can view the files for themselves. While I strive to transcribe them as close to the original as possible, I make mistakes.

What other content will you post?

In the future I plan to visit the archives of some of the cities that I find most interesting and provide content from materials I find there.

I have, occasionally, visited the sites of abandoned works. I may post some content related to those (photos, maps) in the future.

I will not be posting internal documents from any works I have access to through my professional practice. If you are interested in those types of files please contact the Operating Authority directly.

Are you going to tell us who you are?

I don’t believe that anyone who knows me and is reading this isn’t 100% sure of who I am. I didn’t create or even scan most of these files so I don’t want to inadvertently take credit for the work that has been done. When I eventually create my own content related to the materials here I will likely attach my name to it – mostly so I can discuss with others who are interested 🙂

I want to complain about something, how do I contact you?

That’s the neat thing, you don’t!

Yeah but I actually really want to info dump some cool wastewater history stuff I know …

I will consider making a lemmy community or something, I don’t really want this site to become “work” where I feel compelled to respond to people.

I want to advertise on this website

I want to enjoy things without capitalism ruining it.