Supes Solve Wastewater Problem by Pat McGroyne

[sd gross]

County Supes Solve Wastewater "Problem"
(Supervisors Defend Plan to Ship Bagged Effluent North)
by Pat McGroyne

Scraping a groundswell of criticism off the bottoms of their shoes, the Board of Supervisors defended their plan to ship the county's wastewater up to fertilizer-hungry Prince William Sound. "The Alaskan King Crab industry is clawing to stay alive due to a lack of nutrients", said Mike Reilly, "and we're going to help them out." Towed behind fleets of tug boats in plastic bags which can hold as many as 10 million gallons, the effluent will be used to nourish the highly prized crustaceans which contribute much to Alaska's economy. "I don't know why folks are so uptight," said Supervisor Paul Kelley, "It's a valuable resource which would otherwise get dumped in the River and go to waste!" "You know what those comic book ads say," chimed in Mike Kerns, "join the crustaceans - learn the wisdom of the aleutians."
Pointing to a project involving New York City trucking millions of tons of nitrate-rich landfill to the dusty clay deserts of Oklahoma and Texas, Reilly explains how both states mutually benefitted - "Oklahoma was able to grow lush crops in what was parched, arid ground and New York, which had run out of space in which to deposit their dung, found a home for it and turned their turds into a tidy profit." Environmentalist concerns that the bags might leak were pooh-poohed by advocates who claimed the bilous brew would be double-bagged in 6-mil poly and all tugboat crewmembers would be patch-certified and carry their own repair kits.

[nicofrog]

LOL good one I wish it were true;
You know , I'm just one little frog, but I've been thinking in Sonoma county, we have the largest concentration of perhaps anywhere in the world , of environmental activists, people who know alternative water treatment systems gray water options, composting toilet specialists, people who advocate dry sewage treatment etc, perhaps the county and cities need our help now, maybe they are in a vulnerable spot where they actually may lighten up, and listen to a world that is converting away from "white man piss in spring" to more sensible ways of dealing with our liquid waste.
Buckminster Fuller said 35 years ago that the internal combustion engine, and the flushing toilet were going to be the ruin of us in 50 years.
that gives is 15 years to start to make sense.
There are perhaps 25 environmental ngo's at least in this county. if they could ALL put together a group letter of concern to the wastewater management folks, with an endorsement from Al Gore, maybe we could create the worlds largest
Natural waste management facility, and rock some cleaner water,maybe even feed it to grapes...? Nicofrog

County Supes Solve Wastewater "Problem"
(Supervisors Defend Plan to Ship Bagged Effluent North)
by Pat McGroyne

Scraping a groundswell of criticism off the bottoms of their shoes, the Board of Supervisors defended their plan to ship the county's wastewater up to fertilizer-hungry Prince William Sound. "The Alaskan King Crab industry is clawing to stay alive due to a lack of nutrients", said Mike Reilly, "and we're going to help them out." Towed behind fleets of tug boats in plastic bags which can hold as many as 10 million gallons, the effluent will be used to nourish the highly prized crustaceans which contribute much to Alaska's economy. "I don't know why folks are so uptight," said Supervisor Paul Kelley, "It's a valuable resource which would otherwise get dumped in the River and go to waste!" "You know what those comic book ads say," chimed in Mike Kerns, "join the crustaceans - learn the wisdom of the aleutians."
Pointing to a project involving New York City trucking millions of tons of nitrate-rich landfill to the dusty clay deserts of Oklahoma and Texas, Reilly explains how both states mutually benefitted - "Oklahoma was able to grow lush crops in what was parched, arid ground and New York, which had run out of space in which to deposit their dung, found a home for it and turned their turds into a tidy profit." Environmentalist concerns that the bags might leak were pooh-poohed by advocates who claimed the bilous brew would be double-bagged in 6-mil poly and all tugboat crewmembers would be patch-certified and carry their own repair kits.

[Dynamique]

There does seem to be a significant composting toilet, greywater systems and bioremediation wastewater-treatment contingent in the county, which is awesome.

A few years ago (c. 2003) I spoke with someone in the Well & Septic Dept. of the county PRMD about composting toilets and why they are not legal in the county. He told me that they had tested composting toilets in conjunction with the OAEC, but they failed the testing because they did not zap pathenogenic critters well enough.

What happened is that one of the OAEC testers went to South America and picked up an intestinal parasite infection. The composting toilet did not get hot enough to kill the eggs the parasites were depositing into this person's "solid waste" and then into the composting toilet.

Much as I like the concept of composting toilets, I'm glad that this problem was caught during testing. If it had not been identified, it would have created a public health problem due to these pathogens getting out into the environment.

So here's an idea: Work with the PRMD folks again to test the new generation of composting toilets to get them legalized in Sonoma County. And yes, you do need to test with intestinal parasites and other nasty pathogens to do a legitimate, thorough evaluation. While you're at it, finding bacteria that can digest hormone and antibiotic residues within the composting toilet would be a huge benefit!

After that, take on getting marsh-based (surface) graywater systems legalized. The county is not the culprit with that one. It is the State Water Resources Board (at least that was the problem the last time I checked.) The feeling that I got from the county PRMD people I spoke with is that they would like to have graywater and bio-remediation systems, etc., be legal and in use in the county, but it is out of their hands due to state regulations.

- Kirsten

...people who know alternative water treatment systems gray water options, composting toilet specialists, people who advocate dry sewage treatment etc, perhaps the county and cities need our help now, maybe they are in a vulnerable spot where they actually may lighten up, and listen to a world that is converting away from "white man piss in spring" to more sensible ways of dealing with our liquid waste. ...