EARTH & US: Clean Water for All
This calling I have to love, serve and honor Sacred Water by getting our poop out of the streams and rivers, has been with me for over 20 years. I’m excited that the opportunity is now here for people to advance in various ways by “closing the circle” and gaining two benefits — methane gas for energy, and safe, excellent liquid fertilizer — from the appropriate treatment of our wastes.
The importance of having at least one team-mate was clear, and reading Dennis Rivers’ “Teams of Two” reinforced that for me. After several attempts to recruit someone, I now have Rosa Ysela as a staunch ally. She knows less about the subject but shares my passion for cleaning up the rivers and streams. I first met her at a community water meeting. A local woman with a family here, she has complementary skills: understanding and speaking Spanish fluently, knowing something of the power structure and acquaintance with many other community members (whereas I am the gringa geek on biogas and EMs with a public health background). I think the complementarity piece is key!
Rosa and I met recently with Sebastian Torres, the president of the Council and also the head of the local recycling company; he encouraged us to bring together a group of community volunteers to collaborate with the Council and Mayor’s staff to work on a “pilot project.” Next, we spoke with Diego, the head of infrastructure for the pueblo (which includes water and sewage treatment). He expressed interest in our proposal about biogas digesters, and is currently meeting with professionals from the University of San Gil about sewage treatment.
We saw the need to bring together some key people as community volunteers. Our first significant collaborator with relevant skills is Ingrid (a civil engineer with experience in wastewater treatment). I believe that education is key, because when people realize that there are some much better alternatives to the status quo, they get enthusiastic!
So, Rosa and I created some publicity and reached out to our contacts and phone-lists of people working on water related issues. Since I recently received a friend’s donation to aid the work for clean water, I was able to offer a free lunch along with the meeting — which also provided some income to Casa Común. Meanwhile, I created a powerpoint and script from my research, to give people a grasp of the basics and the potential gains for people, environment and economy.
About 25 people responded with interest, and of these 14 actually came for the meeting. One of them was from Villanueva, whose sewage flows untreated into the Barichara stream before it reaches our town.
As they arrived, we invited everyone to pick up an Emoto-inspired card of a water crystal, with the quality it represents printed on the other side; Rosa had a jar of stream water, and asked people to write a word of blessing on a strip of masking tape and attach it to the jar. After introducing themselves, I asked people to tell someone next to them about a time when they felt reverence or gratitude for water in nature. Next was my powerpoint presentation, which gave the basics on how biodigesters work, emphasizing the “circular economy” and the many benefits of biodigesters and Effective Microorganisms (EM).
A few fun facts: 150 rivers in Japan have been cleaned with EMs, generally by tossing in clay balls infused with EM.
When EMs were applied to raw sewage for 3 days, ratio of 3 L to 1000 L sewage, aerobic conditions (Karthik et al., 2016), reductions of contaminants observed were:
In addition, EMs can also help break down some pharmaceuticals, dyes, heavy metals, and other chemicals in urban wastewater. Biogas bubbled through an EM solution can be cleansed of H2S, which is not only bad smelling but also corrosive; and can lower the CO2 concentration, thus raising the methane content of the gas from 63% to 78%.
Ingrid, our civil engineer, also gave a presentation, starting with a short video about a 6-foot diameter fixed-dome digester in Tanzania that treats the sewage sludge from a town of 40,000. She focused mainly on the preliminary diagnostic steps before building, such as evaluating the topography, geology, and soils of the land available for the sewage treatment. She told us that the “cavitation” system that the University of San Gil promotes removes 80–90% of pathogens through use of a membrane and pumps. Rosa reported on our meetings with Sebastian and Diego, emphasizing the idea of a volunteer group collaborating with the municipality.
We were impressed by the knowledge level of the participants. One was my old friend iAnku Xue, well-versed in biodigesters; another, Juan Carlos, told us that the mayor’s office is interested in solutions to the health problems caused by smoky wood used for cooking in many farm kitchens; Valentina had a good grasp of environmental and legal issues, and knows how to get important documents from the mayor’s office. A couple of people came who were at the workshop on filtering soapy water for reuse. We learned that the UASB biogas system used in Bucaramanga was faulty and used to give off bad smells (it is currently being upgraded). People were excited to hear about the power of Effective Microorganisms in cleaning up rivers, ponds, and even sewage. They started talking about putting it into septic tanks, a really good idea to prevent contamination of nearby streams and groundwater. Many thought that EMs would be a great thing to start out with, even before any biodigester is built. I was happy to tell them that it is sold right here in town, at the animal feed store!
Most people agreed to come to a follow-up meeting in two weeks. And I received an email message from a university student in Ecuador who had heard about our movement and wanted a copy of my powerpoint to help with her thesis on wastewater treatment!