Re: Composting WWTPs and composting (Was Re: [compost_tea] Re: MICROBIOLOGY TESTING of COMPOST TEAS

From: L Blair <rlbct_at_clear.net.nz>
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 10:56:13 +1300
The primary cause of heavy metals in treated sewage from cities is from
industrial waste.  Cities (at least in NZ) don't want to put in a seperate
waste system
because of the expense.

Comparing human waste with animal waste?  Is this organically farmed animals
or factory farmed?
If you compare disgusting with disgusting you might well find not much
difference!

What's this got to do with compost tea?  Well, compost is needed, and inputs
to compost are important.

Lynton

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Peterson" <ted.peterson_at_tcsn.net>
To: <compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, December 27, 2004 8:39 AM
Subject: Re: Composting WWTPs and composting (Was Re: [compost_tea] Re:
MICROBIOLOGY TESTING of COMPOST TEAS


Tom:

All of these citations are known.  There is a popular misconception that
human feces somehow magically contains heavy metals.  The heavy metal
content in sludge/biosolids comes from people dumping into the sewage system
products such as paint, paint thinners, solvents, etc. that contain heavy
metals.  You can institute a program to educate and mostly those programs
work. People will dump less toxic material than before the programs.
However, along comes Joe citizen and says: "Gee, everybody else is following
the rules so what does it hurt if I dump my radiator fluid down the drain
instead of taking it to the hazmat center for proper treatment.  After all,
I am only one person."  And the next thing you know, heavy metal content of
the input starts rising.

There is no known way to process heavy metals out of sludge with any type of
processing designed to break down the material and treat for pathogens.  The
only known way to mitigate heavy metals is through dilution.  This is why
composting biosolids is so valuable.  Composting will dilute the heavy
metals proportionally.  It will not get rid of them.

As I mentioned, part of the heavy metal problem is education.  People just
don't realize that they can't simply dump everything down the drain. This
was a myth sold by the people who were pro centralization of waste
processing to get people to buy into loss of local control. If you put a
person on a septic system and state, "Dump x, y and z materials into your
septic and you are responsible to get the system pumped when it breaks
down." you will get far greater compliance.  As long as people have the idea
that stuff just magically disappears down the drain, we will continue to
have heavy metals problems.  By the way, highly industrial areas used to be
the biggest contributors but most municipalities have put in programs to
trap and separate toxics as part of the business permits.  Biggest offenders
are hair salons, radiator shops and so-called clean, electronically based,
manufacturing.

It's a funny paradox that the EPA and other gummint organizations are now
promoting decentralized systems for waste disposal because they are cleaner
and easier to monitor.

Human waste is no more toxic than any other monogastric animals and is far
safer than most chemical inputs used quite routinely in farming.  Human
waste from a residential area contains far lower levels of heavy metals than
an industrial area in general but human waste is not, by nature, loaded with
metals.

Ted Peterson
SOE



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Received on Sun Dec 26 2004 - 23:48:56 EST

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