Summer Solstice, Strawberry Full Moon, Celebrating Water
Ah, summer! I’m so happy to be jumping into the lakes and rivers of the Carolinas at this beautiful time of year, with glowing green trees on their banks…first at Paris Mountain, Greenville, SC, then Catawba Falls near Old Fort, NC; then, Lake Santeetlah and Bear Lake in the Smokies of NC. For me, one of the great joys of summer is to swim and float in clean, clear water! I hope you get to swim, wherever you are, to feel the delight and refreshment. I celebrate the great gift of fresh water flowing down from the mountains.
This Summer Solstice, on June 20 at 4:50 pm, is said to be a time of relationship harmony, committed partnerships, nurturing connections, and inspired creativity. On June 21, there is a “Strawberry Full Moon,” whose symbol is “a table set for an evening meal.” This could connote spiritual and material nourishment. The full moon in Capricorn signifies responsibility, ambition, and manifestation of career success.
What connections or partnerships are nurturing you this Solstice? What success are you celebrating? What is giving you nourishment?
Re-using greywater
In Barichara, Colombia, an itinerant pair of greywater educators from Mexico recently came to teach a practical, 2-day hands-on workshop on purifying soapy water from kitchen, sinks, and laundry. It’s always best to use biodegradable soap, and to avoid chlorine, they emphasized. About 20 enthusiastic students attended.
Did you know that a shower uses about 8 liters (almost 2 gallons) of water per minute? Or that one load of laundry can use between 30 and 80 liters of water? In the kitchen, 10–30 liters are used per person per day on dishwashing. Instead of throwing away all this water, it can be cleaned and used for irrigating plants. In a water-scarce area such as ours, this can help farmers greatly.
We learned several models as we created these features on a nearby farm:
- “Circle of plantains”: we dug a hole a meter (about 3 feet) deep and a meter in diameter, then filled it with large branches, smaller branches, a layer of green leaves, and finally a thick layer of dried leaves, tamping down each layer. Young plantain trees were planted around the edge of the circle. Greywater from the kitchen is piped into this pit and held by the spongy plant matter; the plantain trees are nourished because of potassium in the soap, and any food scraps will compost and add nutrients.
- Laundry water: we plumbed a barrel to receive water from the washing machine, and created an outlet for water to exit once it percolates through layers of gravel and stone. Micro-organisms will help break down the soaps. The partly purified water is used for irrigation.
- A handwashing sink’s water can be channeled into trenches lined with stones via tubes with perforations facing down, then covered with earth. The water can be taken up by plants near the tubes.
Managing Barichara’s wastewater
For weeks, I’ve been researching the best ways to treat the sewage from Barichara, which continues to pass untreated into the Barichara stream and then into the river below. A previous corrupt mayor had built a “white elephant” (empty building) instead of a sewage treatment system, pocketing the money designated for it. The new mayor, Milton Chaparro, is more progressive and has expressed interest in dealing with this issue.
In early June, Rosa Ysela, who had also attended the greywater workshop, came with me to talk to Sebastian Torres, the founder of the recycling company “Respira” and the director of environment in the mayor’s office. I had sent him some articles about the biogas digester in Medellin for sewage treatment, and videos about how digesters work. I also sent him information on Effective Microorganisms, which can be used to further purify the effluent from biodigesters, removing pathogens and adding beneficial microbes.
Sebastian told us that the “white elephant” has a tank where the wastewater goes before it’s released to the Barichara stream; he wondered whether it could be converted to a biodigester.
In the new mayor’s first year in office, not much funding is available; money has to come from the state, so we should start with a smaller model. Currently the mayor’s office has less than $40 miliones ($10,000 US) for water purification.
Sebastian was enthusiastic about convenios solidarios — collaboration between citizens and the mayor’s administration. We began brainstorming:
- We could start with a study team, including my civil engineer friends Emilio and Ingrid, and maybe Felipe and Alejandra, who are starting a Rights of Nature team for the Barichara stream.
- We’re aware that the town of Villanueva pollutes the Barichara stream, too, before it arrives here.
- Perhaps we can raise funds from Barichara tourism businesses that want a better environment.
- A foundation that might give to such a project: Fundacion Corona funds sanitarios.
- Start with one neighborhood?
- Get university students involved, via Somara (who has taught students from Bogota how to construct biodigestors), to take measurements and make studies for course credit. Environmental engineering students? Universidad de los Andes, or Universidad Industrial de Santander (in Bucaramanga).
Rosa and I left the meeting feeling optimistic!