At a time when the word “organic” defines responsible living and municipalities wring their hands over soil contamination, stormwater management, and the overtaxed sewer system, how do we put two and two together and harvest the rich minerals and organisms present in our waste streams? Working with waste challenges cultural taboos, as well as presenting as an environmental risk. But sane, safe, low-tech systems for processing waste also present a real solution to reconnecting our bodies to earth. All we have to do is first pull out the thorn of ingrained prejudice.
Large connected sewage systems in Chicago, Paris, and Hanover, Germany, were some of the first built, and therefore are some of the modern world’s oldest and most in need of repair. Folding in additional infrastructure for expanding populations, repairing tunnels, and/or replacing more than 150-year-old pipes (many of them lead) and tunnels is an expensive and complicated operation. Chicago has been at work on its plumbing infrastructure for decades—repair, expansion, and maintenance is an ongoing process.
Annually, the city of Chicago sends out an extended water report to every mailbox in the city. Over the years I have noticed that contamination rates in the water supply have increased, though we are assured that they are still within safe levels by EPA standards—as these standards continue to be incrementally increased so we can clear the limbo bar as our systems age. With every human-designed energy system there is entropy or a downcycling that occurs and a need for a discharge of liquid and solid material that can’t be treated any further. Combined sewer overflows usually occur in wet weather when treatment plants fill to capacity. To relieve pressure, excess flow is released into open waters that we share with every citizen and the rest of life’s creatures.
***While mining sewage sludge is being looked at to grab the precious metals—namely nickel, copper, platinum, iron, zinc, silver, and, yes, gold (from electroplating, electronics manufacturing and automotive catalysts)—the economics have not proven worth the hassle. v
