Cleaning Up The Water!

 Where: Franklin NH Wastewater Treatment Plant

Date: 11/8/10

Mission: Learn about their faultily and determine if it is a sustainable way of cleaning our water

BAM! The second we stepped off the bus the smell hits you. A mixture of old porta potties and methane. Not the most pleasant to say the least but something you can tell the workers of the plant get use to. and the cloud cover was keeping all those smells contained right where they were. 

Ken Noyes- Chief of Operations (has been working at the plant for 22 years)

Ken looked like a working man. Who loves his job and doesnt miss a day of work unless he has to. A man who had earned is money from hard work and determination. A man you could respect. He became our tour of the plant by a map and a banner that he proudly read a loud. 

Environmental Protection Agency's 1st place 2006 for Maintenance and Operations.

"we were first in the whole nation!"

We start with the map: The Franklin Waste Water Treatment Plant is located on the Merrimack River. The plant was build when the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972. The discharge of human waste into lakes and rivers had gotten so bad the government need to take action. It spent billions of dollars to build plant like Franklin all over the nation. 

We began seeing water at the Preliminary or Head Works.

At the head the water runs through a number to screens to filter out any large debris. Anything from feminine products, toys, to money. 

"I even found $3200 dollars one time" Ken

The water than goes through the grit chambers which are 15 feet deep. The inorganics drop out during this chamber. 

The BOD= amount of oxygen for organisms to do their jobs (an indicator of how much harm you are causing to an ecosystem.) 85% of the BODs must be removed by the end of the process. The more solids you have the higher the BOD will be. 

With this new info on BODs and water that was free from solids and inorganicss, we moved on to the Primary treatment. 

"Dilution is the solution to pollution."

Primary Treatment- Waste water flows from the outside and very slowly moves out over V shaped filters on the outside. 60-65% of the settable solids (solids that set to the bottom of the tank) are removed. 35-40% of the BODs are removed. There is a long are the very slowly rotates around the tanks catching all the grease and solids that made it through the head works. Seagulls flock to these tanks to grab the grease and solids floating on the top of the water. Pretty gross! 

Dont try to swim in the next tank for the water treatment. The Aeration tanks are where most of the action occurs. Millions of micro Organisms eat the rest of the DOB's and dissolved solids in the mixed liquor (the water being treated at this point.) The air is added into the tanks to give air to the bugs as well as mix the water. The goal for Ken is to keep them alive and have a high diversity of protozoans. After only 12 to 14 hours the water is free from any solids and moves on to the last step in the cleaning process. 

Secondary Clarification is the last step in cleaning process. The state of NH requires the plant to put all its water through UV lights. The lights kills any bacteria left over. After lighting the water flows directly into the river.

  

For all the solids that are extracted from this process, they make their way to the anaerobic digester and gravity thickeners. Here micro organisms, Acid farmers, and methane farmer (eat acid farmers and create methane)  consume most of the solids. They consume 70% of solids put into it. The other 30-35% are pumped over to the center fugues and water is added and process begins again. For the rest it is used for fertilizers on hay and corn fields. 

The work Ken is doing at his wasterwater plant is not only sustainable but helping to clean up water that we never thought we could use again. 

Ken left us with these parting words. "We're all part of it. I want you to know what happens after you flush."

                              

Lets Create Change!

                    "We can create change one meal at a time" -Food inc. 

   If Americans took a step back and looked at their food system they may learn somethings they would have ever imagined went into producing the food they eat everyday. From people dying from food contaminated with E. coli and salmonella. To genetically altered foods being sold to the consumer without their notice, farmers being run out of business by large companies, and the mistreatment of animals, which most people just turn their eyes away from. 




     "These companies fight, tooth and nail, against labeling. The fast food industry fought against giving you the calorie information. They fought against telling you if there is trans-fat in your food. The meat packing idustry for years prevented country-of-origin labeling. They fought not to label genetically modified foods; and now 70% of processed food in the supermarket has some genetically modified ingredient." Eric Schlosser


 These companies like Tyson and Monsanto who control almost all of the products they sell, have more power in our government than anyone can imagine. Tyson which is the largest producer of meat in the nation and Monsanto who controls almost 90% of soy bean and corn production put their people into our government in high racking postions so they can manipulate laws that are passed. Swaying the laws towards themselves and the "regulations" that are suppost to control them.

Farmers that are producing the chicken for companies like Tyson dont even have control over their own farms. They must adhere to the guidelines the company sets for their farm. Than pay that same company to update their farm. So the company can and does set astronomically high prices for the updates, which if farmers dont do they lose their contract. These large companies like Tyson have small farmers up against a wall that and they know that farmers have to back down. Farmers just dont have a choice. The animals on these farmers are mistreated as well. Yes, many of the farmers try to make a better living for their animals but the amount of animals they are being forced to produce, forces them to hurt the very animals that give them an income. 

 "I'm always struck by how successful we have been at hitting the bull's-eye of the wrong target. I mean we have learned- for example, in cattle we have learned how to plant, fertilize and harvest corn using global positioning satellite technology, and nobody sits back and asks, "But should we be feeding cows corn?" We've become a culture of technicians. We're all into the how of it and nobody's stepping back and saying "But why?" Joel Salatin 

Another issue that is is facing us is our unquestioning blind following of our current food system. We dont ask what and how our food is being produced. Its as if, if we dont look we think it might go away. The sick animals, our food being grown with commercial fertilizers and the genetically altered food going onto our store shelves. The only way change can occur is if we stand up for our food. If we say no to genetically altered produce and no to eating meat rised industrial parks. 

Joel Salatin the owner of Polyface Farm is an excellent example of how an ideal farm should be run.  Even though their food isnt labeled organic they are clearly a environmentally stable farm. Which emphasizes the quality of life for their animals. If more people buy from Polyface they our food system could change! 

 "There are no seasons in the American supermarket. Now there are tomatoes all year round, grown halfway around the world, picked when it was green, and ripened with ethylene gas. Although it looks like a tomato, it's kind of a notional tomato. I mean, it's the idea of a tomato." Michael Pollan