Some experts have been predicting for years that global wars could be fought over clean water. Until the financial collapse of 2008, the opportunity to make big money in massive clean up was attracting a powerful combination of seemingly disparate interests--regulatory, environmental, and industrial. These powerful forces promised to overwhelm popular opposition to the tax burden required to fund a massive public project to clean up the potable water supply, which in cost is second only to that of the U.S. highway construction program.
Town after town, each with typically 5 to10% of on-site wastewater systems (mostly old cesspools and "modern" septic tank/leach fields deemed to be failing) has moved to central collection and treatment of sewage; but it’s this centralized treatment of sewage that creates sludge. The more extensive the treatment, the greater the sludge problem has become.
Groundwater and Air Pollution Caused by Sludge
In some places, sludge has been dumped into "sanitary" landfills, causing serious groundwater pollution. In other places, it has been incinerated, causing serious air pollution. Remarkable as it may seem given the stated objective of removing pollutants from the water, cities built on ocean shores have simply dumped the sludge into the ocean.
In 1992, the ocean dumping ban went into effect to protect U.S. marine waters, and sewage sludge was rechristened "beneficial biosolids" for agricultural use. The benefit of this content compared to the dangers of the toxic matter in it is a key point in the debate about land application of sludge. Most experts believe that the menace of toxic and otherwise non-life-compatible substances found in sludge greatly outweigh the potential nutrient benefit.
Here are the ten most polluted places on earth. Much of that pollution is caused by sewage released from municipal treatment plants.
The Environmental Impact of Global Warming on the World's Water Supply
The solution to the problem is clear: don’t create sludge in the first place. Communities that are not already using sewers to create sludge should practice sewer avoidance. A sewer is extremely expensive technology. It degrades the environment more than protects it, and it produces sludge in overwhelming quantities.
If the threat to the world's water supply increases, or the supply of potable water is reduced in volume, the quality of any recharge to the water supply becomes critical. On-site wastewater treatment systems will have an increasing impact in maintaining water quality, primarily by preventing pollution of aquifers that may be reduced in size.
Even without the future impact of global warming, much of the world's potable water supply depends upon better management of on-site sewage treatment and disposal systems and replacement of antiquated methods and processes.
References:
- The Water Encyclopedia, Published by John Wiley & Sons, 2007.
- Gleick, Peter H., Pacific Institute Research Report, “Dirty Water: Estimated Deaths for Water-Related Diseases 2000 – 2020,” August 15, 2002.
- Committee to Review the New York City Watershed Management Strategy, Water Science and Technology Board, Commission on Geosciences, Environment and Resources, National Research Council, National Academy Press, “Watershed Management for Potable Water Supply, Assessing he New York City Strategy,” 2000.
- “Septic Tank System Effects on Ground Water Quality”, by Larry W. Canter and Robert C. Knox, CRC Press, Lewis Publishers, Inc., 1985.
John Anderson - John Anderson has worked as a journalist, editor, advertising executive, Internet pioneer, and he has authored four books.
Join the Conversation