permaculture

[George Anna Clark <esac@laneta.apc.org>]

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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