Sewage -- Misplaced Resources

The canal from Northern California to the Los Angeles water system provides only 25% of the volume of water needed to flush their toilets for one day. At what cost? When L.A. finishes with this water they run it out into the Pacific Ocean to pollute the ocean.

A few years ago, Lake Tahoe spent millions of dollars to construct a waste water treatment plant designed to take the sewage of the basin and transform it to pure water. Did it work?

The impellers of the pump were worn to a razor's edge in less than two months, due to the chemicals, requiring the impellers (some weighing 600 lbs) to be replaced. The tertiary treatment was removed, leaving only the primary and secondary treatment centers. The effluent was then pumped over the mountain to be held in a settling pond. The "dilution solution" again.

The advent of chlorine was cited as the panacea for

Corvallis Oregon treats their sewage in the traditional way. Effluent into the settling ponds (primary treatment) where the heavy stuff sinks to the bottom, and the light stuff floats to the top. The stuff from the bottom is scraped off and sent to be treated by composting, either aerobically or anarobically. The water is then pumped to the secondary treatment pond, where the organic matter is "eaten" by the bacteria. When finished it is sent to the settling pond where the treated organic material is removed to the digesters. The treated water is then shot with chlorine and allowed to enter our waterways. The cost at the time of this writing is about $8,000,000 per year. The alternative?

What then, can we do with the problem of our sewage? What can we do?

The answer has been around for centuries. The answer is the land. Sewage, applied to the land in sane ways provides the tilth and fertility to sustain our crops. The land loves the "waste" products, while our rivers are dying because of

Some topics in this essay:
Corvallis Oregon, Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, , Pacific Ocean, United Compare, waterways cost, waste water, organic matter, secondary treatment, applied land, settling ponds, heavy stuff, settling pond,