- SHERBROOKE - The company
that runs Sherbrooke's water treatment plant is marketing a fertilizer
that's part human waste, part quicklime. GSI Environment says it's not
having a problem selling the product. It's moving 14,000 tonnes a year
of the stuff.
-
- Every ounce of sludge that comes out of Sherbrooke's
sewers is now dried, ground, and mixed with quicklime.
-
- Francois Gourdeau of GSI Environment says the quicklime
cooks the bacteria. "As soon as you mix the lime, it produces heat,"
he says.
-
- The final product is high in organic matter, and has
roughly the same fertilizing value as animal manure. However, some people
cringe at the idea of growing food in human waste, no matter how it's treated.
-
- Gourdeau argues you have to remember what's going into
fields now.
-
- "We will see that a lot of the things that we've
been doing, such as putting pig manure, chicken manure, and other products
such as pesticides and herbicides, can potentially be more harmful,"
he says.
-
- Ivy Weir-Pankovitch sits on the city's water treatment
board. "Compare it with when sewage from homes and cottages was going
straight into the water. We weren't overly concerned with it then. Surely
this whole process, which is in the hands of professionals at every level
is an improvement," he says.
-
- The local agriculture board has approved the use of
biosolids in fields. Its only concern is that prolonged use may build
up heavy metals in soil.
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|