Water is used for many different things like washing your clothes, showers, or refreshing your thirst.  After we us it, the water can be quite dirty with many different contaminants.  The Johns Creek Environmental Campus cleans the water so that it can be reused for facility purposes like irrigation, plant operations and also discharge back to the Chattahoochee for downstream users.  Let's review the contaminants that are removed in treatment:

	TRASH has large pieces of things like pieces of plastic, small bits of wood, and cigarette butts.
	PATHOGENS from human waste include bacteria and viruses that can be harmful and spread disease.
	NUTRIENTS in the incoming waste has high levels of phosphorus, nitrogen and ammonia associated with human, industrial and food waste.
	INORGANIC SOLIDS (artificial solids) are a portion of the incoming solids that are not able to be treated biologically.
	TURBIDITY is the clarity of the water and dissolved and suspended material that has collected in the wastewater giving it a cloudy appearance.
	FINE DEBRIS includes very small pieces of hair, plastic, wood, cloth or other material that have broken off larger trash and debris during the collection process.
	SCUM including floating fats, oil and grease that are dumped down the sink.
	OXYGEN or the dissolved oxygen in the incoming wastewater must be raised to allow oxygen-rich water to be returned to the river.
	GRIT is primarily small particles of heavy sand, gravel and rocks that enter the sewer system through inflow and infiltration.