How can the sewage water get mixed with the fresh water on a modern 1 year old ship?

Oh gosh that sounds terrible! I’m glad we didn’t have any problems like that on our cruise to the Mediterranean. I hope you informed the ships staff about it. Does sound like a plumbing problem but I have no idea about that stuff. A new ship, heck any cruise ship should not have those kinds of problems. Now where is my room service at?!

Sounds like there was sediment in the water tanks that got stirred up.

And the brown water smelled like sewage? Could be just excessive rust in the fresh water tanks.
It seems to me any sewage would not be stored but simply flushed out of the ship…

On sailboats within 3 miles of land, you have to keep sewage in a holding tank and then pump it out at a pumping station. On the open seas, you can dump raw sewage right into the ocean. I don’t know if that applies to cruise ships as well but it might in which case sewage from the holding tank might have leaked into the clean water tanks somehow. That would be my best guess.

Here’s a picture of the cruise ship. Here
It’s a big ship but not gigantic like some cruise ships.

@kritiper and @Tropical Willie That would be good if the brown water was just rust from the hot water tanks. My wife could smell foul smell. I could not smell foul smell my nose was stopped up. Something on the that ship kept my nose itching, running with sneezing spells. Especially in the dinning area. It was miserable to deal with active allergy symptoms with people all around (trying to pretend that I was OK). Outside of the boat and in our cabin it was not too bad.

I’d never go on a cruise on one of those monster size ships with thousands of passengers. The bigger the ship the bigger the horror stories. HA!

My first guess is as @Tropical_Willie and @kritiper have said that it could be rust/sediment of some kind. Alternatively, there may be some backwashing mechanism in place because it’s a ship and may have unique needs. If that’s true, it’s conceivable that it’s somehow elated to the backwashing system?

In terrestrial pluming there’s always an air gap to prevent sewage backups from contaminating the fresh water supply lines.

@gondwanalon That helps. Thanks.

@gondwanalon Were we suppose to see all those pictures? There are a lot more than just the ship. I felt like I wasn’t suppose to see all that so I stopped. sorry

Did the staff say what the brown water was? Did they say it was sewage or did they say it was rust?

Most cruise ships have the ability to desalinate sea water to turn it into fresh water and then add minerals back in for safety and taste. Not knowing the schematics for the various systems, I cannot say for certain whether the fresh water tanks could have been contaminated or not. Brown water could be residual smegma churned up off the bottom of the fresh water tank. I would highly doubt the sanitary tanks and the fresh water tanks are even close to one another and would be shocked if they were in piping contact with one another. The only other source of “brown water” I can think of would be from the bilges. There MIGHT be a tie to those two…the fresh water tanks and the bilges. It is likely there are vents on the tanks that vent into the bilge. In choppy enough seas, I know from first hand experience the ship can take some serious angles and dangles. It MIGHT be that bilge water was tossed up the vent lines and into the tanks, but that is not a certainty.

Wow! Imagine being on a cruise ship going through that kind of potential disease!

or don’t

@jca2 There was no message from the crew that I heard about the brown water. This was only my second experience on a cruise. The first cruise was on a relatively tiny ship in the Galápagos Islands. My wife has been on many cruises and she said it was sewage water. I thought that it’s better to expect the worse. The water cleared up quickly but we still didn’t touch it.

@RayaHope All my pictures on Flickr are available to the public.

@gondwanalon Oh, okay I wasn’t sure if they were personal. thank you

I didn’t know, but I wonder if you go to cruisecritic and look up the ship you might find comments about it. Or, start your own comment and an employee might answer if they know something.

There are a few ways that sewage water can get mixed with the fresh water on a ship:

1. Backflow: This occurs when the fresh water system becomes cross-connected with a source of contaminated water, such as through a garden hose that has been left in contact with sewage water. The contaminated water can then flow back up the hose and into the fresh water system.

2. Mixing of sewage and fresh water in the plumbing system: On a ship, the sewage system and the fresh water system may be connected in some way, either directly or through the use of common pipes or pumps. If there is a problem with the plumbing system or if it is not properly maintained, it is possible for sewage water to leak or flow into the fresh water system.

3. Improper treatment of sewage: If the sewage water on the ship is not properly treated and disinfected before being released into the ocean, it is possible for it to contaminate the fresh water supply through contact with seawater.

It is important to properly maintain the plumbing and sewage systems on a ship to prevent sewage water from contaminating the fresh water supply.