Wastewater and Microbes with Trina McMahon

Trina McMahon is a civic engineer and microbiologist. She studies microbial communities in lake water and wastewater treatment plants and tends to approach problems from an engineering perspective. There is some discussion in this episode about the “Super Bowl Halftime Flush,” the phenomenon of thousands of Americans flushing the toilet during halftime, with the potential to damage municipal water pipes with the sheer volume of sudden water consumption. Though the halftime does incur significant peaks of water usage, the damage is unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) an urban legend. Water treatment plants generally have bigger fish to fry than the Super Flush. Like morning showers and flooding. Click here to read more about Trina’s work.