-----Original Message-----
From: enews@biosolids.org [mailto:enews@biosolids.org]
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2006 11:23 AM
To: enews@biosolids.org
Subject: Weekly Biosolids Update from NBP
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Weekly Biosolids Update from NBP
In
this issue:
Week of 6-26-06 Biosolids Update (PDF) From Chris
Peot, Chris_Peot@dcwasa.com. DC Water & Sewer
Authority 2005 Biosolids Annual Report. As one of the NBP's EMS
certified agencies, I am please to include the 2005 Blue Plains (DC WASA)
biosolids annual report.We are very proud of our accomplishments to improve
service and product quality over the past year.The report summarizes some of
our progress.If anyone would like a nice spiral bound copy, please let me
know and I will put one in the mail.The report is located on the NBP web page
- www.biosolids.org - in the NBP EMS
Program directory/Locate EMS Agencies submenu.To view the report, visit: http://biosolids.org/docs/DCWASA_BioEMSAnnRept_2005v2.pdf.
From Dr Taylor, a microbiologist at the Australian Nuclear Science and
Technology Organization, said it was a spin-off from nuclear research at
Lucas Heights to develop antibiotics and environmental repair
technology.Exactly how the system, dubbed a nano-particulate membrane
bio-reactor, works is secret, but Dr Taylor described it as a series of
"gills".A home would need a unit, costing about $2000, fitted with
40 to 50 gills - membranes, or panels - each about one meter by 1.5 meters.
Sewage flowing down the middle of each gill would seep through, feeding
bacteria and fungi growing on the outside. The bacteria and fungi would eat the waste, using oxygen from the air to
remove nutrients and toxins. So, it was also "a stomach and a
lung". "We are aiming at reducing water consumption at the house by
40 to 60 per cent. You would still have sewage leaving the house, but it
would first go around two or three times."While existing sewage
treatment plants already use bacteria, the new technology was significantly
more efficient, and a fifth the cost. Conventional treatment systems also use oxygen, creating bubbles in the
sewage. "But bubbles are very expensive to make," Dr Taylor said.
"They use a lot of electricity, producing lots of carbon dioxide from
fossil fuels."The technology could make money by linking sewage recycling
with prawn, yabby and fish farming. Organisms grown on the bio-reactor could
be harvested as their food.Dr Taylor, who conceded that diners might not want
to know how their seafood had been raised, said his team was looking for
commercial partners.Initially, he predicted, the biggest market would be in
rural areas, where water had to be trucked in. From Victorville,
CA Daily Press, 6-20-06. Wastewater
plant Calls in Plumber - VVWRA takes Emergency Action to Deal with Overload.
VICTORVILLE - The
From Roland
LeBlanc,
gmscpcp@nbnet.nb.ca. Wastewater Biosolids Sustainability: Technical,
Managerial, and Public Synergy - Call for Papers. The deadline
for the submission of abstracts for the IWA International Specialist
Conference Moving forward Wastewater Biosolids
Sustainability: Technical, Managerial, and Public Synergy, is July 15, 2006.The conference will
be held on June 24-27, 2007, in From Dale
Kemery,
kemery.dale@epa.gov. EPA Rule
Proposed to Control Effluent from Large Animal Feedlots. Concentrated
animal feeding operations (CAFOs), such as large pig, veal and poultry, beef
and dairy farms, would continue to be required to properly manage the manure
they generate under a rule proposed on June 22 by EPA. The move, in response
to a 2005 court ruling, would revise the current permit system for such
farms. The proposed rule revises the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (NPDES) permitting requirements and Effluent Limitations Guidelin es
and Standards for CAFOs. The proposal:
The proposed revision is
in response to a ruling from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in
Waterkeeper Alliance, et al., vs. EPA. The proposed rule is open for a 45-day
comment period. For more information on proposed rule, visit: http://www.epa.gov/npdes/afo/revisedrule. From the The farmers are using biosolids - processed sewage sludge - as organic
fertiliser in growing the crops, and the final output will be five million
litres of biofuels each year. Alister Veitch of Edinburgh-based Terra Eco
Systems, the company behind the initiative, said: "This is a very
exciting initiative which has significant environmental and economic benefits
for From More than three years ago, The proposed ordinance has drawn praise from some of the severest
critics of biosolids, including C.W. Williams, a longtime advocate of
responsible spreading of the stuff. He said local ordinances are the best way
to keep tabs on biosolids entering a community."If the county doesn't
have an ordinance, (waste haulers) get a free ride," he told Blair
Goldstein of The News & Advance.The sludge has come under scrutiny in
recent years because of reports that it may contain heavy metals and other
pollutants from industrial waste trucked in from sewage treatment plants in
New York City, Newark, NJ, and Baltimore, MD, among others.Some critics have
complained that the sludge contains airborne pollutants that foul the air
temporarily and may aggravate those who have chronic respiratory problems. The proposed ordinance would establish a local monitor who would
notify residents about when and where the sludge was to be spread. The
haulers would have to notify the monitor two weeks before the biosolids are
scheduled to arrive and post signs along public rights of way bordering the
area to receive them. Current state law does not require waste haulers or
farmers to post any such signs. The law does require waste haulers to notify
county administrators 100 days before biosolids are spread, but the law does
not require county officials to make that information public. That's typical
of the state's hands-off approach to the biosolids industry.Just as importantly,
the county ordinance would give the local monitor authority to take samples
of the sludge before and after it is spread. If problems arise, the local
monitor can act as a liaison between the people adversely affected and the
health department to resolve them. Under state law, waste haulers must pay $2.50 per dry ton to reimburse
localities that have local monitoring programs. With the new ordinance,
Appomattox could pay for its monitor through that money collected by the
state.Last year, some 4,200 dry tons of biosolids were spread on 962 acres in
Appomattox County.The supervisors have taken an appropriate step in the
effort to gain local control of the spread of sewage sludge. Strict
enforcement of the ordinance will not only let the people know where and when
the sludge is being spread, but it also gives the monitor the authority to
ensure that the sludge haulers are obeying the law.The people - and the
environment - should benefit from it. From NACWA Headquarters. NACWA
Hosts Meeting with Pharmaceutical Companies.
NACWA staff met June 20 with representatives
of the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) and the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents
pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, on the subject of
pharmaceuticals in the environment. PhRMA has committed significant resources
to studying the presence and fate and transport of pharmaceuticals in the
environment and is interested in sharing what it has learned with other stak
eholders. According to PhRMA, patient use and excretion of un-metabolized
medications is the leading source of pharmaceuticals entering the
environment, all of which passes through the nation's wastewater treatment
plants before being discharged. Until recently, analytical methods were not
capable of detecting the presence of these contaminants in the environment,
but recent studies have shown their prevalence in the nation's waters. The
question that WERF, PhRMA, and NACWA, through its Emerging Contaminants Workgroup,
have been trying to answer is whether the low levels of these pharmaceuticals
may have any human health or aquatic life impacts. Using real watersheds and
actual wastewater treatment influent and effluent data, together with
estimates of total drug use buy From Ned Beecher, ned.beecher@nebiosolids.org.
From Neighbors next to the city's existing sewer treatment plant at the end
of Engineers are in the early phases of designing the plant, which is
expected to be operational by 2010 or 2011. Wagner said building a new sewer
plant is a lot like ordering a new car - you can add on all types of options,
but none of them are free. The plant will be built with a certain amount of
odor-control devices, but the city can add even more, if that's what
residents demand. The additional odor-control devices - which would require
more of the plant to be enclosed - could add millions of dollars to the
cost."We want to do what we need to do, but we don't want to do more
than what we need to because it definitely could cost a lot of money,"
Wagner said.The city is so sensitive about the issue it doesn't even call the
project a sewer treatment plant. Instead, city officials always refer to it
as the Wakarusa Water Reclamation Facility. Get it? The plant may be treating
human waste, but it really is reclaimin g water. The Journal-World talked to more than a half-dozen neighbors or
workers who are near the current plant on a regular basis. They still call
the place a sewer plant. By and large, they don't call it nasty names."I
guess I really don't have any complaints about it," said Joe Sweet, who
lives near Ninth and Meteorologically speaking, people who live near Ninth and Oak streets
in Make no mistake; a sewer plant has plenty of potential to stink, depending
on how it is run. Craft said when he first moved to his property about five
years ago, there were odor problems. He said there were particular problems
with how the city stored its biosolids, a type of sludge that is a by-product
of treated sewage. But after several neighbors complained, the city put a
roof over the storage area. Craft said that has largely ended the
odors."I bought this property knowing the plant was here," Craft
said. "That's different than having it move into your area. I might be a
little concerned in that case. It wouldn't necessarily be a person's
preference to have one next door."But a lot of it comes down to how good
of a neighbor the city wants to be. In the time I've been out here, I think
the city has made a good effort to be a good neighbor." Concerns about a sewer plant, though, go beyond smell. There are also
issues about whether the plant uses and stores dangerous chemicals, as well
as concerns about what the facility is dumping back into the river.Wagner
said the plant does use some chemicals, but he said not nearly as many as
people may think. Instead, the plant relies more on natural processes.
"The same process that happens when a piece of wood decomposes on the
ground is basically the same process we use," Wagner said. "We let
nature do a lot of the work." Wagner and his crew of 17 plant employees are proud of what comes out
the pipe. Wagner said the amount of feces in the treated effluent is less
than that found naturally in the Michael Campbell, chair of the Wakarusa Group of the Sierra Club, has
been following the city's plan to build a new sewer treatment plant. He said
he's comfortable that a new plant isn't going to do environmental harm to the
For related information regarding this article, visit: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/jun/25/will_plant_raise_stink/. |