Sewage Busting
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Something is rotten in Providence (we're talking stench with a capital S), but that's not stopping biologist John Todd, Ph.D. In fact, it's fueling him: Dr. Todd spends his days using algae, flowers, fish, and other natural materials to convert the Rhode Island town's sewage into water clean enough to swim in.
Disgusting, you say? Actually, more like ingenious. "Most current wastewater-treatment facilities use carcinogenic (cancercausing] chemicals and produce highly toxic sludge," says Joan Wilder, an assistant at Dr. Todd's nonprofit research company, Ocean Arks International, in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Compare that to Dr. Todd's Solar Aquatic Water Purification System which uses no chemicals, produces far less sludge, and costs one third to one half the price-and you'll see he's handling a nasty problem with a nineties sort of solution. Basically, what Dr. Todd does is harness the processes that occur normally in nature:
His 3,600-square-foot greenhouse harbors a sort of food chain in which sewage starts in one vat-filled with algae, bacteria, and other microorganisms-then passes through more vats containing everything from irises to trout.
Add a little sunlight, and-thanks to nature's ability to use contaminants as food sources for plants and fish-the murky water emerges crystal clear.
Besides treating some 20,000 gallons of sewage per day (that's around 125 houses' worth), Dr. Todd's natural solution is also known for producing healthy plants and fish. So it's no surprise that his experimental systems are also already at work in Massachusetts and Vermont-and are soon to flow in Indiana and the Virgin Islands. Dr. Todd hopes that one day his natural system can replace today's costly and hazardous sewage-treatment plants everywhere. All things considered, we can't help but hope so, too.
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