In your home, water is used for all kinds of things from cleaning clothes to cooking to washing the family dog.
After you are finished with the water, it has to be cleaned before it can be recycled in the community.
This water is called wastewater. Where does wastewater go after it leaves your house? How does it get there?
The sinks, bathtubs, toilets, washing machine and dishwasher in your home are all connected by a series of pipes
called "plumbing". Look under your sink and you can see the plumbing pipes. The plumbing all collects into one
four inch diameter line known as a lateral. The lateral, which is underground, carries all the wastewater from
your house out into the street where the City has a network of wastewater collection pipes. This is called the
wastewater collection system.
