Watching for the POP in Biosolids
The “Anthropocene Working Group” has proposed that 1952, two years after my birth, be designated the end of the Holocene geologic epoch and the dawn of a new epoch, the Anthropocene, dominated by human impacts. While the AWG has selected the radioisotope plutonium from nuclear bomb testing as the marker of the epochal transition, other
First Things First with Biosolids Technologies
Many past technologies proved to be overhyped and became failures. “First things first” directs us to attend to the core function of our utilities and ensure their efficient performance
Biosolids and the Circular Economy
The consensus among scientists is a planetary emergency threatens all present and future generations (Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios). Ours is a species with a human-carbon nature out of context with Earth’s capacity to withstand GHG emissions and resource extraction. Our future will be inevitably defined not by expansion but by contraction, and
Connections and Imagination
The holiday season takes us into 2022, a season ripe for re-connecting and re-imagining. We are reconnecting with family, friends, and colleagues from whom SARS-CoV-2 has separated us. We are re-imagining our future ahead, considering the unknowable forces at work in the world, be they microbial, gaseous or political. Imagination is the key resources, as
Microplastics in Biosolids
Are microplastics the next “bad” thing in biosolids? Even if the answer is “no,” source control and focused wastewater treatment improvements are my two “take-aways” from the presentation by Cayla Cook, Microplastics Lead at Carollo Engineers, when she spoke at the November 17th Mid Atlantic Biosolids Association Annual Meeting Focusing on Resilience in our Biosolids
Bored with PFAS? Let’s Take on PAEs!
We have been dealing with the “forever chemical” it seems like, well, forever. I awoke yesterday to my newsfeed telling me that we now have the “everywhere chemical.” The CNN story, Synthetic chemical in consumer products linked to early death, study finds, identifies a list of pollutant sources which sounds similar to that of PFAS,
Biosolids Restoration of Land and Hope
The narrative of biosolids ought to focus on the results of its use, not on the nature of the biosolids itself. When biosolids is used to add organic matter and nutrients to disturbed lands, such as mine sites, the result is habitat restoration, carbon sequestration and watershed improvements. These are results that align with urgent
The Sense to Smell Good
The very best of biosolids programs can be torpedoed by odor complaints by neighbors. While odors are a feature of agricultural activities, something about odors emanating from biosolids applications can create an especially hostile community reaction. But our industry has not made aspects of biosolids odor a factor in selection of technologies and programs for
Biosolids Phosphorus is Taxing
Climate change arising from mindless release of greenhouse gases poses an existential risk to human welfare globally, but in the wringing of hands over what to do, save some attention to the mindless release of the element phosphorus, as it is forever lost as a macronutrient and as it damages aquatic ecosystems. As a carbon
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