Billy wrote:
songbird wrote:
...
it doesn't say what happens to
the wastewater...
I was trying to keep it short. You want waste water, you got waste
water. But remember, Chuck isn't your typical CAFO owner. He, according
to the book, is trying to play fair.
from reading it, yes, he's at least doing
something and i'm glad for it. likely if
there are any further problems found he
will be one of the people who will work on
figuring it out too.
Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry
Farms to Humans and the Environment by David Kirby
http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Factory...vironment/dp/B
004IK9EJQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310272843&sr=1-1
(Available at your local library, until they are closed.)
....
Chuck introduced them to the inventor, an old farmer named Don Lloyd.
Rick and Nicolette watched in wonderment as Chuck and Lloyd explained
how it worked.
"We take all the wastewater washed from the barns and pump it into this
underground holding tank, where heavy solids settle to the bottom," Chuck
said. "Now, this is all the stuff that would normally go into the
lagoon. So you see, we've already eliminated the need for a lagoon right
from the get-go." Rick liked what he was hearing so far.
Once the solids had settled out, Chuck and Lloyd siphoned water off the
top and ran it to a large above-ground tank. "Once there, we inject the
water with something called TCM, or trichloromelamine; it's a sanitizer,
attacks the
GOING NATIONAL 261
bad organics and stuff," Chuck said. "Makes it like pure water. The
United States uses it in Afghanistan for our troops."
i think he's talking about the wastewater
treatment system here and not the water.
After the microorganisms were killed, a polymer was then injected into
the waterthe tiny polymer beads bound with paniculate matter that got
through the separator and clumped them together, pulling them down to
the bottom of the tank. "You can actually see the liquid getting
clearer," Chuck marveled. When that process was finished, the water was
removed from the top and the residual matter was ejected through a
hopper at the bottom of the tank.
this is a basic waste water treatment plant.
so he's moved the technology from the municipal
plant to his own local system.
the polymer is recycled and reused or does
it go to the landfill?
trichloromelamine? sounds like a chlorine
derivative and some of those turn organic
materials into carcinogens don't they?
Some of the cleaned water was then recycled back to the barnsto hose
down the floors and flush the manure pits back out into the underground
separator tank, starting the whole closed-circuit process over again.
The remaining liquid was mixed with fresh aquifer water, diluting its
particulate content to the point of human drinkability.
To prove it, Don gulped down a glass of the former hogwash. The guests
gasped. "Why, it tastes just fine" he said, smiling and wiping his
mouth. "But we don't usually drink itwe give it to the pigs to drink.
It cuts down our groundwater use by about 40 percent."
major good right there.
That left the solids. Raw manure cannot be used on food crops because of
the harmful pathogens it contains, limiting its commercial value as a
fertilizer. Most of the germs can be killed through composting, though
that takes time and money to accomplish, without adding enough market
value to the manure to make the system economically feasible.
"Then we discovered an answer," Chuck said proudly.
---
The rest of this section I've already posted.
Chuck "appears" to be addressing the concerns that you raise.
some, but like i said above, it's good to see
someone making the effort.
As far as heavy metals are concerned, there shouldn't be any in the
system, because heavy metals would make animals sick, and hopefully lead
to a recall. Unlike humans, animals don't drop used iPod batteries down
toilets that flow into public water treatment plants, and contaminate
reclaimed solids.
it depends upon the feed...
Personally, I don't like CAFOs. I'd prefer to see animals free ranging
on pasture, but some people balk at paying $25 for a whole chicken.
oh geeze, an inch of pig poo solids a
day. that would be hell to me, pig poo
is way too stinky. the wormies are
probably doing a great job, but i sure
wouldn't want to feed that stuff to my
worms and then put it on any food plant.
pigs eat too much like people for me to
want to have stuff coming out their butts
to be anywhere near food crops.
roadside fertilizer? you means so the
wind can pick up the dust and have many
people breathing it as they drive by?
How would this be different than using composted manure, which will
still have some coliforms alive in it?
i wouldn't want that used on roadsides
either. i think all manures should be
buried after spreading to minimise them
going airborne.
washed
by rain into the ditches and then streams,
rivers, etc. sure some of it is sterilized
by the sun and rain, but how many bacteria or
virus do you need for some infections? not
many. um, no thanks, bad idea.
i can't tell from the quote if the
guy is raising his pigs with or without
antibiotics and hormones. those i
certainly would not want going through
to the worms/plants/ground/groundwater.
You raise a fair question. I saw no mention of the use of antibiotics.
Lessening the density of (giving more space to) the herd reduces the
prophylactic need for antibiotics, but for some reason, animals given
antibiotics grow faster and larger.
the theory i've seen so far that holds
the most credibility to me is that the
antibiotics reduce the infection level
so that the animal has more energy to
devote to growth. at least as long as
it doesn't get a resistant strain...
I'm not proselytizing for CAFOs, but trying to point out there are some
people who are trying to improve them, and become better neighbors, but
in truth I'd be a NIMBY.
i don't like them either, but like you see
that most people will not go free range or
reduce their meat consumption until it is
impossible to sustain it further. it is
more likely that the future will be more
vegetarian eventually out of sheer need
for more food for people and less available
to feed animals. the market price for meats
will increase enough to push them out of
the regular diet for most of the lower
classes. a $25 chicken is likely for those
who cannot raise their own.
songbird