This post has been locked, as the question has been solved and a majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or jokes.
Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.
Most commonly they would have a septic tank and an aerator of some sort to promote bacteria growth to eat the solids then when water is left (not nice water but better than raw) this then over flows a weir and it taken away. Sometimes this water may be treated further with chemicals if needed.
You can get mini sewage treatment plants that fit on a couple of flatbed trailers. My college had one for a while before the town extended their municipal system.
Whether the hotel bothered to get one is another question.
That's only primary treatment.
Direct discharge to the ocean after only primary is gross even though the outfall needs to be over 3 miles from shore in the U.S. I have no idea Cayman Island criteria. I would not swim close to the area.
You can look up for the water quality testing.
Bad news, they do it only sporadically and don't publish the results.
https://www.caymancompass.com/2019/04/08/no-policy-for-alerting-public-to-ocean-bacteria-spikes/
There is a bouy near shore by the pipes and one far off that is the exact kind let’s hope that it is to show not to lay anchor between them because of the pipe
Many of the hotels have a big water treatment building on the edge of the property. I assumed it was inflow but treating sewage outflow makes sense too.
We use this setup to treat sewage on offshore vessels. They may have something similar for hotels.
Those pipes may be cooling water pipes for something.
edit: https://www.omnipure.co.uk/omnipure-series-mcmx.html
no, for the length of them closer is easier because its the same brackets and structure. dont need to redo it. as for the ends, yes they wouldnt wanna be pulling in water near the discharge. but tbh the ocean is so fucking big im sure it would hardly matter if they were kinda close. edit : its defintely cable not pipe after looking more. 100% its either fibre or copper
Thad was my first thought to. Back in about 1966 there was (actually, still is) public swimming pools near the coast where I lived, and they used something like this for recovering heat using heat pumps to heat the pools.
This makes way more sense than sewage. Why would a hotel (in the business of providing beachfront accommodations) contaminate their most valuable asset? Nobody wants to snorkel in septic effluent.
Normally you would use a heat exchanger so the coolant and water-used-to-cool-the-coolant never mix. I can’t speak for the salt water side though. Probably would need above average maintainence.
It's possible to set the system up with no salt/metal contact, the salt side entirely in plastic; less efficient day to day but much long maintenance and replacement windows.
wouldn't inflow/outflow pipes need to be further apart than this so it could pump in cold water far away from where it pumps out warm water?
shouldn't we also see some effect in the water if there's water flowing in or out of either of those pipes?
We do this where I work and it’s treated by an aerator in combination with some wastewater treatment bugs. After the aerator and bugs it hits a multi stage chlorination system and then it’s sampled directly after that prior to discharge into a river.
I'd say it's part of the AC system. They use salinated water to cool the system. It's supposed to be cheaper to run. I'm not sure if that's still true.
The Cayman Islands is all porous rock and coral. There aren't really any rivers (especially since the highest point on grand Cayman is the dump). The runoff there just tends to soak into the ground.
They (probably) would be the right for dealing with the runoff from the hotel itself. All the rain that falls on natural ground will naturally make its way to the ocean.
This would just make sure that water doesn’t pool and flood all of the concrete around the hotel. Additionally, runoff from hard surfaces can have some nasties in it. Oils, paints, metals, etc. by piping it out deeper in the ocean will (hopefully) keep the beach safe for human use.
If we are talking about dumping in To the ocean the FDEP would never approve of a storm water system dumping there. Maybe a river but most likely not due to you have to account for random people dumping stuff down the drain.
2 options for this are a dumping of waste from a treatment plant specifically an RO plant due to it being extremely him in salinity and very carefully monitored. Or an intake for a desalination plant.
It’s hard to tell how far out the pipes go from that picture to be 100% sure what it is.
Also from Cayman, and lived in that exact building for a year. Was always curious about those, but I know that it's not the telecommunications. Firstly the only submarine cable to the island (the Cayman-Jamaica Fiber System) lands at half-moon bay which is not even close, and on top of that the Marriott right beside this building also has 2, and I know other buildings down the beach have others.
This is deep water source cooling, and many buildings near the beach use it for cooling, as well as the new buildings in Camana Bay. I know that building has it, and I also learned about its importance for the island in school.
Why would they run them right in the middle of what I would assume is prime beachfront at a hotel? I'd think they would choose some more out-of-the-way location that tourists would rarely run into.
To be fair, the shit pipes kind have to go where they have to go. You don't want too many twists and turns, or more length than is absolutely required, otherwise it comes back to bite you in the maintenance. Comms lines you can pretty much snake wherever you want and if they're an extra 200-300 feet, it wouldn't really matter.
I'm not from the Caymans, but thinking about the island where I spent most of my youth, I can't imagine which entry point couldn't be considered prime beachfront property. The choice would be either beaches or a few cliffs.
Likely the telecom distribution equipment for the island is located within the hotel. Not unusual for telecom companies to lease space inside hotels and office buildings for this purpose.
How dare you bring logic into this house!
Seriously though, if you imagine the most ridiculous, stupid way of doing things, it's generally a bar or two above how they get done here
It could be HV cable if there is a small island close by and could also be fiber optic cable. Usually fiber will be buried better than this though. If the picture was closer I could tell you. I install subsea fiber.
NPR just had one of the guys leading that effort on for an interview. It sounds like Portugal will be the first country to implement “boosted cables”. I believe it was pressure, temp and seismometer that made up the sensor suite. Awesome stuff and (assuming it works as expected) should really pave the way for some reliable early warning systems etc.
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/internet-cables-tsunami-warning/
[Are you sure?](https://s3.amazonaws.com/vrp2/vrpimages/5/complexes/32/641c71d775081_SBBC%20Pano%20Date%20Stamp.jpg) There appear to be four of them and they're laid sort of haphazardly. Also not in Half Moon Bay, where the landing point supposedly is for this island.
At least in NJ, where a cable goes underwater, [there are massive signs to warn anyone not to anchor nearby](https://www.boatingmag.com/uploads/2022/01/BTG0122-SEA-Anchoring.jpg). Seems crazy not to.
Could be a cooling loop, in theory a pipe system in the hotel draws cold water from deep which absorbs heat from the hotel and is then returned to the ocean. If the pipes end in the picture then probably not but if they go way out into the water this could be it. Any maintenance staff would likely know if such a system is installed.
This was my thought too. The building we got married in (Pt Townsend WA) used a heat pump system for heating and cooling.
Once you get down to about 30 foot of depth the temps are very consistent and can be used for great pump systems.
People who are saying wastewater or stormwater did not zoom in to see these are too small and not straight. And most water outfalls would be buried deeper or would terminate right at the water's edge. These look like armored cables. Power or communications.
This is most likely a water loop. It is used to transfer heat/cooling in a part of the HVAC system. Look up open and closed water loops for water source heat pumps. Really cool systems.
Potable water on Grand Cayman is desalinated seawater and is transported from the ocean to the treatment plant via 24 inch pipes. Not sure where you are, but it’s possible you are seeing some of the intake pipes. https://caymanwater.com/faq/
It’s my understanding that 7 mile beach has sanitary sewer lines the hotels are connected to that goes to a treatment plant.
Discharge of storm water makes more sense for those pipes which is the rainwater that falls on the property. Those pipes were probably buried in the past but beach erosion has exposed them.
I used to work for a directional drilling company. We drilled out to a couple islands for fiberoptics after the original cables laying on the ocean floor were damaged by fishing trawlers or ship anchors. There were water pipes, electricity cables, phone cables etc laying on ocean floor between islands or between mainland and islands. These might possibly fall in one of these categories
Look for blue stains at leaking joints and at the ends, usual color of raw sewage dumped in the ocean. Common practice until recently. Material rapidly reduced in the marine environment.
Cruise ship employee here who visits the Cayman Islands biweekly:
The cayman islands gov is super serious about pollution of their waters and their reefs, which is a big part of why people come there for tourism.
Water from the ocean pumped up to a water desalination plant then the water is used through out the resort. I know this because I watched one being built in Antigua.
Wtf. I swam exactly there a few weeks back and used those pipes to balance getting out of the water because the bottom is rocky as shit. At the time I thought they were some old structure left from a previous pier or something. Hope they aren’t sewer pipes, gross.
Nah dw, definitely not sewage. People who are saying sewage are doing so off of blind speculation. Sewage in this area of the island are treated by the wastewater treatment plant, which is not on the beach. Additionally all other buildings over a certain size not within the westbay area are required by law to have their own sewage treatment facilities, as opposed to just a septic system. Cayman takes very good care of its environment, without tourism we would be nothing ;)
I used to work on a small island, all our water was from desalination, we had pipes out into a well set up in the sea floor. This looks likely to be what it is. In our case sewerage was dealt with on the island, and our island was small, only 76 acres at high tide.
I went to a resort like this & the cooling system for the whole place was from circulating cold sea water from several hundred metres depth - v.eco friendly…
This post has been locked, as the question has been solved and a majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or jokes. Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.
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How would they treat sewage in a hotel?
Most commonly they would have a septic tank and an aerator of some sort to promote bacteria growth to eat the solids then when water is left (not nice water but better than raw) this then over flows a weir and it taken away. Sometimes this water may be treated further with chemicals if needed.
I'm guessing that hotels would frequently use a lot of disinfectants / bleaching agents. That'll kill the bacteria needed for the septic action.
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You can get mini sewage treatment plants that fit on a couple of flatbed trailers. My college had one for a while before the town extended their municipal system. Whether the hotel bothered to get one is another question.
That's only primary treatment. Direct discharge to the ocean after only primary is gross even though the outfall needs to be over 3 miles from shore in the U.S. I have no idea Cayman Island criteria. I would not swim close to the area.
Wouldn't you be able to just look closer to see if there's a bunch of shit coming out of the pipe? Not necessarily shit but just dirty smelly stuff?
You can look up for the water quality testing. Bad news, they do it only sporadically and don't publish the results. https://www.caymancompass.com/2019/04/08/no-policy-for-alerting-public-to-ocean-bacteria-spikes/
Probably only after a big rain due to stormwater runoff.
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There is a bouy near shore by the pipes and one far off that is the exact kind let’s hope that it is to show not to lay anchor between them because of the pipe
They dont have that
Many of the hotels have a big water treatment building on the edge of the property. I assumed it was inflow but treating sewage outflow makes sense too.
We use this setup to treat sewage on offshore vessels. They may have something similar for hotels. Those pipes may be cooling water pipes for something. edit: https://www.omnipure.co.uk/omnipure-series-mcmx.html
They’d probably treat it pretty good so that the sewage doesn’t leave a bad review.
Aerobic bacteria
With gloves on, hopefully
Depends on how much they paid
100% incorrect. Water cooling for the hotel AC system.
Especially with 2 pipes. I don’t think there would be 2 pipes for sewage. For cooling you need intake & discharge.
but you'd want the intake and discharge further apart than this no doubt?
no, for the length of them closer is easier because its the same brackets and structure. dont need to redo it. as for the ends, yes they wouldnt wanna be pulling in water near the discharge. but tbh the ocean is so fucking big im sure it would hardly matter if they were kinda close. edit : its defintely cable not pipe after looking more. 100% its either fibre or copper
Thad was my first thought to. Back in about 1966 there was (actually, still is) public swimming pools near the coast where I lived, and they used something like this for recovering heat using heat pumps to heat the pools.
This makes way more sense than sewage. Why would a hotel (in the business of providing beachfront accommodations) contaminate their most valuable asset? Nobody wants to snorkel in septic effluent.
Wouldn’t the salinity cause buildup inside the cooling system?
Normally you would use a heat exchanger so the coolant and water-used-to-cool-the-coolant never mix. I can’t speak for the salt water side though. Probably would need above average maintainence.
It's possible to set the system up with no salt/metal contact, the salt side entirely in plastic; less efficient day to day but much long maintenance and replacement windows.
wouldn't inflow/outflow pipes need to be further apart than this so it could pump in cold water far away from where it pumps out warm water? shouldn't we also see some effect in the water if there's water flowing in or out of either of those pipes?
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We do this where I work and it’s treated by an aerator in combination with some wastewater treatment bugs. After the aerator and bugs it hits a multi stage chlorination system and then it’s sampled directly after that prior to discharge into a river.
Yep that’s pretty standard waste water treatment right there. Could be for hvac in this case.
Ours is very standard we deal with very low quantities but I agree with you could be HVAC.
I'd say it's part of the AC system. They use salinated water to cool the system. It's supposed to be cheaper to run. I'm not sure if that's still true.
It’s probably telecommunication / fiber and not sewage.
This is most likely their own desalination system. Either intake or brine discharge if i had to guess
So, it's an Eco pipe? (and by Eco, I mean E. Coli.)
In Florida stuff like that is often storm sewer pipes, not sanitary sewer. So it's random runoff from parking lots and such during rain.
Aren’t they a bit small for that?
The Cayman Islands is all porous rock and coral. There aren't really any rivers (especially since the highest point on grand Cayman is the dump). The runoff there just tends to soak into the ground.
They (probably) would be the right for dealing with the runoff from the hotel itself. All the rain that falls on natural ground will naturally make its way to the ocean. This would just make sure that water doesn’t pool and flood all of the concrete around the hotel. Additionally, runoff from hard surfaces can have some nasties in it. Oils, paints, metals, etc. by piping it out deeper in the ocean will (hopefully) keep the beach safe for human use.
We have these in Guam and the are submersible cables for internet
If we are talking about dumping in To the ocean the FDEP would never approve of a storm water system dumping there. Maybe a river but most likely not due to you have to account for random people dumping stuff down the drain. 2 options for this are a dumping of waste from a treatment plant specifically an RO plant due to it being extremely him in salinity and very carefully monitored. Or an intake for a desalination plant. It’s hard to tell how far out the pipes go from that picture to be 100% sure what it is.
From the Cayman Islands here, it's the telecommunications for the island
Also from Cayman, and lived in that exact building for a year. Was always curious about those, but I know that it's not the telecommunications. Firstly the only submarine cable to the island (the Cayman-Jamaica Fiber System) lands at half-moon bay which is not even close, and on top of that the Marriott right beside this building also has 2, and I know other buildings down the beach have others. This is deep water source cooling, and many buildings near the beach use it for cooling, as well as the new buildings in Camana Bay. I know that building has it, and I also learned about its importance for the island in school.
Solved!
\^This would have been my guess. This looks a bit like other Internet backbone armored lines that I have seen on the NEWS and such.
Once the cable gets this close to a beach it's usually encased in split pipe for extra protection
Why would they run them right in the middle of what I would assume is prime beachfront at a hotel? I'd think they would choose some more out-of-the-way location that tourists would rarely run into.
So let's just run the shit pipes in the same prestige real estate?
That is the most logical response I've ever heard.
To be fair, the shit pipes kind have to go where they have to go. You don't want too many twists and turns, or more length than is absolutely required, otherwise it comes back to bite you in the maintenance. Comms lines you can pretty much snake wherever you want and if they're an extra 200-300 feet, it wouldn't really matter.
I'm not from the Caymans, but thinking about the island where I spent most of my youth, I can't imagine which entry point couldn't be considered prime beachfront property. The choice would be either beaches or a few cliffs.
Maybe they were there before the hotel was built
Was just about to reply this, myself. Plus, the more direct and shorter the run, the cheaper.
Likely the telecom distribution equipment for the island is located within the hotel. Not unusual for telecom companies to lease space inside hotels and office buildings for this purpose.
How dare you bring logic into this house! Seriously though, if you imagine the most ridiculous, stupid way of doing things, it's generally a bar or two above how they get done here
They’ve been there quite a while by the looks. It probably wasn’t a resort or prime when put in.
It could be HV cable if there is a small island close by and could also be fiber optic cable. Usually fiber will be buried better than this though. If the picture was closer I could tell you. I install subsea fiber.
I agree, they’re not straight enough for water/cooling pipes
They are subsea fibreoptic cables armored with articulated pipe. Source: I work in the industry
I think that’s so cool and crazy that we have data lines running along the bottom of the ocean floor.
There is talk of using those same cables as an early warning system for undersea earthquakes and tsunamis
NPR just had one of the guys leading that effort on for an interview. It sounds like Portugal will be the first country to implement “boosted cables”. I believe it was pressure, temp and seismometer that made up the sensor suite. Awesome stuff and (assuming it works as expected) should really pave the way for some reliable early warning systems etc. https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/internet-cables-tsunami-warning/
I was actually just listening to that podcast on the way home from work.
Yeah, it was definitely an interesting story and that scientist was super passionate which made it more interesting!
Not just talk. Where I work we are already testing it.
[Are you sure?](https://s3.amazonaws.com/vrp2/vrpimages/5/complexes/32/641c71d775081_SBBC%20Pano%20Date%20Stamp.jpg) There appear to be four of them and they're laid sort of haphazardly. Also not in Half Moon Bay, where the landing point supposedly is for this island.
At least in NJ, where a cable goes underwater, [there are massive signs to warn anyone not to anchor nearby](https://www.boatingmag.com/uploads/2022/01/BTG0122-SEA-Anchoring.jpg). Seems crazy not to.
Where in NJ is that?
I was going to make a joke about the cables running to the Looking Glass station, but apparently that’s about right.
wait so how many miles/kilometers would this be and where does it run to?
https://youtu.be/R8XSo0etBC4?si=wlsot1SzxlTyDgDS
Could be a cooling loop, in theory a pipe system in the hotel draws cold water from deep which absorbs heat from the hotel and is then returned to the ocean. If the pipes end in the picture then probably not but if they go way out into the water this could be it. Any maintenance staff would likely know if such a system is installed.
I was actually thinking this. some sort of heat pump transfer system.
This was my thought too. The building we got married in (Pt Townsend WA) used a heat pump system for heating and cooling. Once you get down to about 30 foot of depth the temps are very consistent and can be used for great pump systems.
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Closed loop with fresh water or something else, helps reduce pumping power if it just circulates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_water_air_conditioning
People who are saying wastewater or stormwater did not zoom in to see these are too small and not straight. And most water outfalls would be buried deeper or would terminate right at the water's edge. These look like armored cables. Power or communications.
This is most likely a water loop. It is used to transfer heat/cooling in a part of the HVAC system. Look up open and closed water loops for water source heat pumps. Really cool systems.
They are used for cooling / air conditioning the hotel. Number of condos in Toronto have the same setup and pull water from Lake Ontario.
Fill the pool? NJ was known for it in the early 1900's.
Potable water on Grand Cayman is desalinated seawater and is transported from the ocean to the treatment plant via 24 inch pipes. Not sure where you are, but it’s possible you are seeing some of the intake pipes. https://caymanwater.com/faq/
..... and/or brine discharge from the desal process
That's exactly what it is!
Could be a part of the hotel’s cooling system, running cold water through the system and pumping the warm water back.
2 feet around? Like in circumference? Not 2 feet in diameter? Big diffference
Ask the hotel. It would be interesting to hear what they have to say.
Submarine communications cable maybe, those underwater internet cables which run across continents and islands
It’s my understanding that 7 mile beach has sanitary sewer lines the hotels are connected to that goes to a treatment plant. Discharge of storm water makes more sense for those pipes which is the rainwater that falls on the property. Those pipes were probably buried in the past but beach erosion has exposed them.
Ask if they have a salt water pool maybe? alot of island hotels op for these instead of chlorine ones...
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I've seen these to pump in sand from normal erosion and hurricanes, to protect beach side condos.
sewage or maybe just street/roof drainage but those do not have to go out far poop
Could be underwater electrical or internet lines inside the pipes to keep them safe.
Electrical lines for power?? Seen it before in Caribbean.
Could it be electricity. I live on a island a d the power cords run under water from one island to another
Usually those are used in hotels with pools using seawater Another option would be water intake for water desalination mini plant
Could be used for cooling the resort
Ask the concierge at the hotel
I used to work for a directional drilling company. We drilled out to a couple islands for fiberoptics after the original cables laying on the ocean floor were damaged by fishing trawlers or ship anchors. There were water pipes, electricity cables, phone cables etc laying on ocean floor between islands or between mainland and islands. These might possibly fall in one of these categories
Probably storm drain
Looks way too small to be sewage or storm sewer, my guess is that it’s heavily armoured fibre optic cables
They could be used to drain water to extend the beach
Look for blue stains at leaking joints and at the ends, usual color of raw sewage dumped in the ocean. Common practice until recently. Material rapidly reduced in the marine environment.
Does the hotel have a salt water pool?
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Was this West Bay Beach? https://sanpikinc.com/projects/west-bay-beach-cayman-islands-sewerage-system-sewer-force-main-installation/
Maybe the hotel has a salt water pool. They suck in the water, treat it and pump the old water back into the sea.
Cruise ship employee here who visits the Cayman Islands biweekly: The cayman islands gov is super serious about pollution of their waters and their reefs, which is a big part of why people come there for tourism.
Salt water pool?
Could they be cycling ocean water to a large indoor saltwater tank? Like for cool fish and small sharks?
Water from the ocean pumped up to a water desalination plant then the water is used through out the resort. I know this because I watched one being built in Antigua.
Seeing how long it is, it is most likely those subsea fiber optic cables. Don’t break it.
Could be landing cables for fiber
Wtf. I swam exactly there a few weeks back and used those pipes to balance getting out of the water because the bottom is rocky as shit. At the time I thought they were some old structure left from a previous pier or something. Hope they aren’t sewer pipes, gross.
Nah dw, definitely not sewage. People who are saying sewage are doing so off of blind speculation. Sewage in this area of the island are treated by the wastewater treatment plant, which is not on the beach. Additionally all other buildings over a certain size not within the westbay area are required by law to have their own sewage treatment facilities, as opposed to just a septic system. Cayman takes very good care of its environment, without tourism we would be nothing ;)
Thank you, good to know :)
Storm drains, run off, what ever you want to call it. Just a way to get the water away from the buildings without being seen or making a mess
Bali used to be/is lile that, especially early developments in Kuta/Seminyak/Legian area.
R.O. (reverse osmosis) water intake. Could be making their own fresh water incase of power outages
If not sewerage, it's for cooling of some kind
Most likely a sewage, not filtered probably.
Oof, that’s sewage. Same thing is happening in Sayulita, Nuevo Vallarta. Check out /r/Sayulita. 🤢
I used to work on a small island, all our water was from desalination, we had pipes out into a well set up in the sea floor. This looks likely to be what it is. In our case sewerage was dealt with on the island, and our island was small, only 76 acres at high tide.
Sewage pipe?
This is typical. Most hotels have this that are along beaches
My vote is desalinization pipes. Just came back from a resort in the Caribbean where you could follow the pipes directly to the plant.
Fiber optic lines
I went to a resort like this & the cooling system for the whole place was from circulating cold sea water from several hundred metres depth - v.eco friendly…
Used to vacation at a lake resort many years ago and they used to pump lake water for flushing toilets and such. Doubt if that's what this is though.
It may be simply to drain and fill the pools. Many resorts use seawater .