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  • From: George Anna Clark <esac@laneta.apc.org>
  • To: bmn@iglou.com, permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: steved@ncat.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] using municipal sewer sludge
  • Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 19:43:31 -0600

Hi all,

Hoping this goes through... anybody see the notice on a grey-water re-use electronic conference I sent about a month ago? I didn't get it back...

The following doesn't focus on sludge per se, rather sewage, ecosan (see below)...

From the gtz-ecosan-newsletter: A following research study, financed by the Nordrhein-Westfalen regional Ministry of Environment (MUNLV) (period 2003 - 2004), will further investigate the persistence and behaviour of medical residues in the soil and on plants irrigated with urine.

!!! Information www.lambertsmuehle-burscheid.de
!!! pdf-report of the preliminary research findings (German)
can be downloaded from www.lambertsmuehle-burscheid.de

The Swedes and Germans (and Norwegians, I think) are quite interested in this topic, actually. I'm a "member" of a very informal network on "ecosan" ("ecological sanitation" - as in, sanitation should mimic recycling in nature). Just about all of us advocate sanitation without use of water. We do advocate the "safe" re-use of the our bodies´ wastes - but this can even mean watering bamboo lots. But we think it can be done more safely, and also be more accessible for the majority of the world's population, without water.

I think the greater problem of sewage water for the world's population is not its use in agriculture, but its contamination of water bodies. (don't take this to mean I advocate the use of sludge on lettuces, however!) Here in my state of Morelos, Mexico, for example, 95% of the states public wells were polluted with faecal matter (thus also pharmaceuticals, nitrates and hormonal "stuff" and used motor oil and whatever else a person decides to pour down the drain). Even if you avoid putting them on your plants, you could still drink them in your water. (In most of the state the agricultural producers are not allowed to use river water for irrigation due to its faecal content... which amounts to punishing the victim, rather than the polluter.)

As was stated, these substances are found in the "high-income" countries as well... pharmaceuticals in Germany, prozac in Texas and England... I remember a U. of Surry study in Nottingham, England (Mike Barrett) suggests that a significant amount of groundwater recharge comes from sewage leakage, compromising water quality.

See www.ecosanres.org for a recent publication on use of urine and faeces for agriculture.

Hakan Jonsson at Uppsala (Swedish University of Agricultural Studies) has done cost-benefit studies of eco-san- His recent recommendations for reading (besides the publication mentioned above) include....
Tidåker, P. 2003. Life Cycle Assessment of Grain Production Using Source-Separated Human Urine and Mineral Fertiliser. Report 251, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Download from: http://www.bt.slu.se/lt_old/lt-uppsala.htm.

Jönsson, H. 2002. Urine separating sewage systems – environmental effects and resource usage. Water Science and technology 46(6-7):333-340.

Jönsson, H. 2002. Urine separation - Swedish experiences. In: Magid, J., Lieblein, G., Granstedt, A., Kahiluoto, H. & Dýrmundsson, Ó. (Eds.). Urban Areas – Rural Areas and Recycling – The organic way forward? Proceedings from NJF-seminar No.327 , August 20-21 2001, Copenhagen, Denmark. DARCOF Report no 3, Danish Research Centre for Organic Farming. Pp. 117-124. Editor reviewed. Can be downloaded from: <http://www.agsci.kvl.dk/njf327/papers/NJF-Co-development.pdf>http://www.agsci.kvl.dk/njf327/papers/NJF-Co-development.pdf. This text was in 2001 also published in the EcoEng Newsletter.

Vinnerås, B. & Jönsson, H. 2002. The potential of faecal separation and urine diversion to recycle plant nutrients in household wastewater. Bioresource Technology, 84:275-282.

Jönsson, H. 2001. Source separation of human urine - separation efficiency and effects on water emissions, crop yield, energy usage and reliability. Abstract volume - First International Conference on Ecological Sanitation 5-8 November 2001, Nanning China. pp: 39-45. Also found at: http://www.ias.unu.edu/proceedings/icibs/ecosan/jonsson.html.

Johansson, M., Jönsson, H., Höglund, C., Richert Stintzing, A. & Rodhe, L. 2001. Urine separation – closing the nutrient cycle (English version of report originally published in Swedish). Stockholm Water Company. Stockholm, Sweden. Available at: <http://www.stockholmvatten.se/pdf_arkiv/english/Urinsep_eng.pdf>http://www.stockholmvatten.se/pdf_arkiv/english/Urinsep_eng.pdf

Jönsson, H. 2001. Urine separation - Swedish experiences. Focus topic article, EcoEng Newletter No 1/2001. Newletter of International Ecological Engineering Society. <http://www.iees.ch/EcoEng011/downloads/EcoEng011_F1.pdf>http://www.iees.ch/EcoEng011/downloads/EcoEng011_F1.pdf. This paper was originally presented at NJF-seminar 327 in Copenhagen 2001.

crossing my fingers that this goes through,
George Anna
http://www.laneta.apc.org/esac/activities.htm

At 03:30 p.m. 27/09/2004, you wrote:
roxann wrote:

have there been any studies done on pharmaceutical
traces/accumulation in the sludge? A frightening amount of drugs are
eliminated from a city population's body each day into the sewer... I
know the prozac is now beginning to show up in Texas's water supply,
but I've never heard anything about how much of it or other drugs
might also be in sewer sludge. Treatment plants are not set up to
deal with this type of contamination.

That is correct...they are not...and I don't think you'll see that any time soon. Unfortunately, with more pressure to "treat" sewage and sell the remaining sludge cake (processed into pellets or not), you're seeing a lot more in print about how safe it is for application--afterall...it's been "tested". True enough, they run some chems...however, federal standards do not address a myriad of chemical consituents...and testing for even a few is VERY cost prohibitive. Federal standards don't even address endochrine disruptors well, let alone have municipalities test for them. To a permaculturist, sewage is simple human waste and maybe a little water. Sewage in the standard sense is a toxic brew and should be treated as such until such time as there are valid alternatives to current practices. Sadly, my former agency plans to sell its pellets to the public soon, and has been testing it in some areas for a few years.




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