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  1. 4th April 2009 02:49 #1
    Proyas
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    Question: What do submarines do with their human waste?

    When submarines are out at sea, how do they dispose of all the human waste? Do they just push a button and eject the stuff into the water, or do they wait to pull into port to pump it into a tank or something?
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  2. 4th April 2009 04:30 #2
    Shek
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    Quote Originally Posted by Proyas View Post
    When submarines are out at sea, how do they dispose of all the human waste? Do they just push a button and eject the stuff into the water, or do they wait to pull into port to pump it into a tank or something?
    Shoot it out the potty torpedo tube. Just make sure you have the toilet lid closed when you do that. You want the pressure to shoot it out and not into the sub
    "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3
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  3. 4th April 2009 05:17 #3
    maximusslade
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    Waste water is divided into two categories, gray water and black water. Gray water is waste water that was used in showers and cooking. Black water tanks contain the human waste.

    When it comes time to empty the tanks at sea they are emptied into directly into the sea. Although, there were MANY occasions where the NUB A-ganger screwed up the sans line up and blew all that "black water" into the people spaces.... that is a bad day.
    Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit Often...
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  4. 4th April 2009 05:23 #4
    Proyas
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    Quote Originally Posted by maximusslade View Post
    Waste water is divided into two categories, gray water and black water. Gray water is waste water that was used in showers and cooking. Black water tanks contain the human waste.

    When it comes time to empty the tanks at sea they are emptied into directly into the sea. Although, there were MANY occasions where the NUB A-ganger screwed up the sans line up and blew all that "black water" into the people spaces.... that is a bad day.
    Follow-up questions:
    1) Do they also do this on surface ships?
    2) Can the subs be tracked by following the trail of waste?
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  5. 4th April 2009 14:18 #5
    Johnny W
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    Yes, they do it on surface ships as well.

    Ships and subs actually have wastewater treatment facilities on board.


    If subs are dumping waste water, the noise of the operation might allow them to be tracked, but I can't imagine that the waste itself would allow them to be tracked. Its a small amount of wastewater in a very large ocean.
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  6. 5th April 2009 23:05 #6
    avon1944
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    Re: What do submarines do with their human waste?

    I was told by a former crew member of the USS Seahorse (SSN-669) a generation before the L.A. Class subs, that when a dump was require the sub would come up near the surface and pressurize the system to match the outside pressure at the point of the discharge. The waste is pumped overboard with little noise that maybe detected and if so would be part of surface noise. The deeper the sub is the more difficult this process is.
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  7. 6th April 2009 17:28 #7
    Dreadnought
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    Most surface ships use grinder pumps and treatments before expelling the water.
    Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.
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  8. 6th April 2009 18:27 #8
    Ytlas
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadnought View Post
    Most surface ships use grinder pumps and treatments before expelling the water.
    No Sh*t?
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  9. 6th April 2009 18:39 #9
    gunnut
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ytlas View Post
    No Sh*t?
    Yeah, otherwise the ship would be full of sh*t.
    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
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  10. 6th April 2009 18:43 #10
    Ytlas
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    Quote Originally Posted by gunnut View Post
    Yeah, otherwise the ship would be full of sh*t.
    I always thought it was stored in the CHT (Contaminated Holding Tanks) until the ship was so many miles clear of land and then pumped over the side.
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  11. 6th April 2009 18:49 #11
    gunnut
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ytlas View Post
    I always thought it was stored in the CHT (Contaminated Holding Tanks) until the ship was so many miles clear of land and then pumped over the side.
    Some hippies have probably protested against this procedure.

    Didn't the ships just dumped sh*t (literally) out anywhere they went? Then some regulations came in and we couldn't do that any more.
    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
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  12. 6th April 2009 19:11 #12
    Kommunist
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    Has somebody tried training some kind of sniffer fish, for tracking subs, huh?

    Satyamev Jayate
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  13. 6th April 2009 21:25 #13
    Dreadnought
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ytlas View Post
    I always thought it was stored in the CHT (Contaminated Holding Tanks) until the ship was so many miles clear of land and then pumped over the side.
    And I think you would be correct. Not sure though how it is treated IICR its while it is in the CHT tanks.
    Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.
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  14. 6th April 2009 21:25 #14
    Dreadnought
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ytlas View Post
    No Sh*t?
    Would I sh*t you?
    Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.
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  15. 7th April 2009 01:20 #15
    Ytlas
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadnought View Post
    Would I sh*t you?
    I remember when the ships were pumping gray water over the side while still at the pier. They'd be the stream of water coming out of a small overboard with little bits of tissue in it and in the water would be mackerel and smelt jumping up and through the stream of gray water.
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