Sewers

Why does New York City pump nitrogen into the sewers?

I've noticed huge tanks of nitrogen on the corners, pumping the gas into the sewers. Why do they do that?

Public Comments

1. They are weird.
2. Hope you find out . I want to know too.
3. I found this question pretty interesting, so I did a little digging. Turns out that those tanks are not pumping nitrogen into the sewers, but taking it out. Algae break down ammonium that's found in the sewage, resulting in ammonia, which both upsets oxygen levels in the water and is toxic to marine life in the runoff. (ammonium and ammonia are both nitrogen-based compounds) couple of pages: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/data/BACT/info/NH3.html http://www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=2268
4. it has to do with something like the raw waste in the sewer so nitrogen is suspose to help it's something like that
5. Nitrogen is used to service the utility cables that are pressurised with nitrogen( an enert gas) to prevent oxidization and insulate electrical connections It is the utility services that uses the Nitogen tanks not the sewer system