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Waste Not, Want Not |
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By KJ Johnston
Our most difficult wastewater problems can be solved with the help of—believe it or not—a simple turkey baster, according to Jonathan Todd of Todd Ecological Design, Inc., who visited the Central Coast in February. He is a leading proponent of nature-based wastewater treatment solutions.
Nature knows best when it comes to the remediation of polluted water such as sewage, using a mix of organisms including algae, bacteria, fungi, mycelia, plants, and animals along with technology. It’s this concept that Todd Ecological has used around the world, developing “eco machines” as cost-effective aesthetic solutions to wastewater management.
“We use a turkey baster to collect organisms found in nature. They self-organize and create their own order of life to break down pollution. We’ve borrowed the wisdom of nature, from streams, marshes, and ponds,” Todd said during his public presentations in San Luis Obispo County.
Nature-based wastewater treatment can even generate some cash by using nutrients to grow plants or fish, turning waste into a valuable resource, he said.
His juicy ideas seemed to baste the receptive audiences with optimism about the encouraging possibilities for a sustainable approach, using appropriate technology, to tackle the Los Osos sewer issue as well as overtaxed groundwater basins around the Central Coast.
Todd’s well-attended presentations were hosted by SLO Green Build, the San Luis Bay Chapter of Surfrider Foundation, the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club, and HopeDance. His visit kicked off a community education campaign on the use of emerging technologies for sustainable development and green building, with an eye on triple bottom line accounting where environmental and social benefits are considered equally with economic benefits.
Forward-thinking local government officials also attended, including SLO County Supervisor Jim Patterson, the head of the county Public Works Department Paavo Ogren, and the manager of Public Works’ Environmental Division Mark Hutchinson.
“We’re promoting ourselves as a showcase of how the community is working together. We’re not only investing in ourselves, but in our future as a county,” said Noah Smukler of Surfrider.
With a focus on water conservation, displays posted around the room depicted examples of various techniques: permeable paving designed to let rainwater soak into the ground and recharge the groundwater, bioswales that help slow down stormwater so it can soak in instead of running off, stormwater gardens that collect rainwater in a basin where it can be taken up by plants, and rainwater harvesting systems that store the water for later use.
Known as Low Impact Development, these techniques are beginning to be promoted by SLO County’s Public Works Department, which is considered to be at the forefront of this effort on the West Coast, according to Hutchinson.
People who attended either gathering, at the new education center at the SLO Botanical Garden—one of the greenest buildings in SLO County—or at the Los Osos Community Center, also had the chance to check out a greywater recycling system made by Brac, where wastewater from showers and sinks is used to flush the toilet. Two innovative toilets were also on display, including a composting toilet and a dual-flush toilet that gives users the choice of a low- or high-flow flush. “I hope in the future everybody has dual flush toilets,” said Mikel Robertson of SLO Green Build.
Todd showed colorful slides depicting a variety of sustainable wastewater purification systems designed by Todd Ecological, an award-winning firm founded by his father, pioneering ecologist John Todd.
Pictures showed greenhouses where municipal wastewater is purified in a system of odorless open tanks filled with lush vegetation and flowers. Neighbors of the sewage treatment system don’t complain—instead, they proudly bring their dinner guests into the greenhouses for a tour, Todd said.
“It’s a great celebration of the conversion of waste to something of beauty,” he added.
Other photos showed a city in China where raw sewage from high-rise apartments flows into an adjacent canal. Todd Ecological’s nature-based clean-up relies on plants and other organisms, and the firm was recently asked to extend the purification system along another 15 miles of the canal.
Waste from a Las Vegas chocolate factory and from the Tyson Chicken factory in the East is also effectively purified using Todd’s “eco machines,” the slides showed. “We used 125 species from Chesapeake Bay for water restoration at Tyson Chicken,” he noted—some of which were collected with a turkey baster.
Sludge from one wastewater system installed by Todd Ecological was used to fatten up koi, which were bought for $1 and sold later for $9. A “restorer” pond installed at a Hawaiian resort’s golf course provided a perfect site for raising fish and shrimp offered on the menu.
“Let’s think of nutrient management, and keeping that local,” Todd said. “We may want to harvest phosphorus and nitrogen for orchards, cover crops, fodder and wood crops. We spend money to move phosphorus and nitrogen around the world, and we spend money to clean it out of the waste.”
Even Todd’s “eco machines” use energy, though, for aeration and pumping, although recent improvements in ecological efficiency have significantly reduced energy consumption. The firm’s ten-year goal, he said, is to develop a carbon-neutral system that provides more energy than it uses.
Todd’s approach may hold promise for Los Osos’ contentious wastewater problems. In an interview with HopeDance he talked of the possibilities, after his tour of Los Osos with representatives from the Community Services District and meetings with officials from the county and the Morro Bay National Estuary Program.
Keeping nitrogen out of the estuary is “work from my heart,” he explained. As a Cape Cod resident and former merchant marine, Todd has firsthand knowledge of problems caused by nitrate pollution of shellfish beds. Ecological design is how nature would do it, with engineering technology, too. “An estuary ecosystem takes millions of years to evolve, and just one mistake to mess it up,” he said as he gazed out at the patch of central Los Osos land known as the Tri-W site. He noted that a recent spill of thousands of gallons of raw sewage from the California Men’s Colony into the estuary shows the problems with conventional sewage plants.
“Biological systems don’t stop functioning even if the power goes out. Biological systems are more robust and cost effective.”
One possibility for Los Osos is creating what’s known as a constructed wetland for final wastewater treatment or for holding stormwater so it can soak into the ground and recharge the aquifer. Another idea is that Todd Ecological could partner with a local bonded engineering firm to design and build a complete treatment system.
“It’s up to local officials and the townspeople if they want to do this. I’m not necessarily out here looking for the job,” he told HopeDance, with the new moon shining like a smile on the horizon.
Still, Todd appreciated the “Forever Stoked” T-shirt presented to him by Smukler and Surfrider, and he enjoyed the Cayucos Beach Ale he had the chance to taste.
The concept of mimicking natural processes to find a sustainable solution for Los Osos—with or without the help of a turkey baster—is certainly worth exploring.
As one Los Osos resident commented after Todd’s encouraging presentation, “Maybe after everything we’ve been through in Los Osos, we’ll actually end up doing it right.”
K.J. Johnston is a SLO County-based writer specializing in the environment.
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