Solution to Pollution
(Page 3 of 5)
May/June 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
Modesto has spent $411 million on antiquated sewage plants and that city still has troubles. Santa Rosa's facility does not remove enough sludge to its digestion tanks to keep the plant operating and the sulfuric acid is eating up pumps and other machinery. Sebastopol's apple packers don't want to clean up their mess so they are syphoning off polluted water for irrigation before the bacteria has time to devour the putrification.
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We could go on, but that would be pointless. Especially since waste disposal doesn't have to be done that way. It's not really necessary for us to pay through the nose while our officials pollute the air, the land and the water. There is a much better, more natural and less expensive way to handle sewage: A way that benefits the planet by returning fertility - instead of poison - to the soil; a way that supplies - in an ecologically clean manner - some of the power our cities are so hungry for.
The basic trouble with the conventional sewage plant is that - after little more than a quick grind and dousing with chemicals - the effluent is pumped into open tanks and ponds for an aerobic digestion. All the gases - including the hydrogen sulfide, methane and chlorine - given off as the sewage decomposes are allowed to contaminate the air. Furthermore, since there's no way to positively control temperature, circulation, chemical and sludge dispersment and other variables in an open pond, much undigested and partially processed waste passes through today's overburdened sanitation facilities.
There's a lot of free percentage being lost this way, you know. Consider the gases for a moment: We've already noted that hydrogen sulfide and methane are combustible. They certainly are. At Fifth and Hill Streets, in Los Angeles, sewer, gas once blew a manhole cover three stories in the air. It also tore out a full intersection from corner to corner at Ninth and Grand. You've undoubtedly heard of other such incidents. They happen regularly.
And no wonder: Methane, a chief component of sewer gas, is also a chief component of the natural gas we pipe into our homes for heating, cooking and other uses. It seems kind of ridiculous to drill wells and pipe methane out of the ground for fuel while we allow clouds of the same gas to evaporate from the sanitation plants of every city and town in the country . . . doesn't it?
We are just as wasteful with the solid portions of our sewage. The chlorine and other chemicals with which we "treat" the effluent further compounds the felony.
The only real solution to the whole problem is the substitution of an anaerobic digestion of our garbage. With this method, sewage is processed in gas-tight tanks where complete transformation takes place. As gases are generated, they are drawn off and stored for future use.
The sedimentation of digested sludge in the anaerobic tanks is chemicals and minerals. These are also drawn off and dehydrated over an incinerator in which only combustible rubbish (not the organic wastes that present systems try to cremate) is burned. The dried sludge is then mixed with incinerator ashes - potash - to make the finest fertilizer.
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