While Columbus taxpayers will spend billions of dollars to stop sewage from spilling into the Scioto River and other waterways, the city could save money by investing in sand instead, according to an Ohio State University researcher.
A system using sand and the bacteria it contains could treat sewage before it hits water, Karen Mancl, the project’s lead researcher, told the Columbus Dispatch.
Mancl has spent more than three years studying bio-reactor systems, which date back to the 1800s. Through the system, sewage flows into sand, where bacteria digest ammonia, phosphorus, and other pollutants. The water flowing from the bio-reactor then contains only trace amounts of pollutants, she said.
The treatment system would be ideal for wastewater triggered by storms. “You get a very high burst of this wastewater and then long periods where you don’t have any at all,” Mancl noted.
1 comment:
We got us one of those - right here on the Eastern Shore
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