permaculture

[Victor Guest <vic@daena.eepo.com.au>]

From: "Sheryl N. Swink" <sns7@cornell.edu>

Siegfried,


>From the context of your posting, I think the term "surridge water"
must refer to "sewage water." Most readers will probably figure out
what you mean before they finish reading and hopefully you will get
some good responses.

*** edited***

There has been some very interesting work done by John Todd of Ocean
Arks International on the use of plant ecosystems to filter sewage
water, resulting in water suitable for reuse. The following is an
extract from a website
(http://www.earthbase.org/guests/oai/oaihistory.html) that surfaced
when I did a quick search to recover more details on his work:


"The practical history of Living Machines for waste treatment began
with the first system in Warren, Vermont, in 1987, but the theoretical
history stems back to Dr. Todd's early work with aquaculture, and his
experience purifying water for the fish he was culturing. Nolte and
Associates, a California-based, independent consulting company analyzed
the performance of the second Living Machine, built in Harwich,
Massachusetts, in 1989. Reported in the Water Pollution Control
Federation's Operations Forum, they concluded that the "treatment
process is effective and promises to be an economical means suitable
for many other sites ... " 


Since that time, OAI has designed, built, and/or operated, more than 10
prototype Living Machines for various forms of wastewater treatment.
For this work John Todd has received many awards, including the first
Chico Mendes

Environmental Merit Award in 1989 from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. In 1990 he received The Roosevelt Conservation Award
presented by President Bush, and most recently, Dr. Todd received the
1990 Discover Award for Technological Innovation." 


On a related web page
(http://www.earthbase.org/guests/oai/oailivmachjt.html) he discusses
<italic>Living Machines for Pure Water: Sewage as Resources</italic>
and refers to publications on the concept of Living Machines:  "The
most recent book on this subject, published in 1989, is Ecological
Engineering: An Introduction to Ecotechnology, edited by William Mitsch
and Erik Jorgensen, and dedicated to H.T. Odum. It is likely to
establish ecological engineering as a legitimate academic discipline."


This might be one starting point for your research on this subject.


Good luck,


Sheryl



>I am from the Free State province in South Africa.  In the Free State


>we have a lot of surridge water that go wasted, which could be used 

>for agricultural purposes especially in our peri-urban areas where 

>there is a lot of agricultural activities.

>

>I would like information on the use of surridge water for 

>agriculture.  The information can include the following:

>    -   methods for the natural treatment and purification of 

>        surridge water

>    -   use of surridge water for vegetable production

>    -   use of surridge water for feed production for animals

>    -   other uses

>    -   dangers involved with the use of surridge water for 

>        agriculture.

>    -   acceptable levels of minerals and organisms in surridge water


>        for agricultural use.

>        

>This and other related information will be appreciated and hopefully 

>will be used to improve the lives of many.

>

>Thankyou very much 

>  

>

>**********************************************************************

>Siegfried van der Merwe              Phone:  0011 27 51 861 1012 

>Department of Agriculture            Fax:    0011 27 51 861 2107

>Private Bag X01                      E-mail: VANDERMS@GLEN1.AGRIC.ZA 

>GLEN, 9360, South Africa

>**********************************************************************



Sheryl N. Swink

Graduate Student


Cornell International Institute for 

Food, Agriculture and Development

Box 14 Kennedy Hall

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY 14853


e-mail: sns7@cornell.edu