sewage

43,381 Viruses Found In Sewage, Only 3,000 Of Them Are Known To Scientists

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– 43,381 Viruses Found in Sewage, Many Unknown to Scientists (Activist Post, Oct. 10, 2011):

Sewage samples obtained by scientists in Pittsburgh, Barcelona and Addis Ababa were found to contain 43,381 viruses — of which only 3,000 are currently charted by mainstream scientists.

Among the viruses found in the sewage samples were the human papilloma virus (HPV), the diarrhea-causing Norwalk virus, and the common cold virus. There were 16 total known disease-causing viruses out of the 3,000 known viruses present in the sewage samples.

The findings of the study, which highlight the vast number of unidentified viruses dwelling in our sewer systems, are hosted in the online journal mBIO, published by the American Society of Microbiology. Considering that only 3,000 of the 43,381 viruses examined have been charted and identified, there could be a large number of superbugs and other powerful viruses routinely developing and going through mutation due to exposure to thousands of other viruses and bacteria within the sewage system. Improper sewage control could serve as a breeding ground for new strands of viruses and a cocktail of existing ones.“Our knowledge of the viral universe is limited to a tiny fraction of the viruses that exist,” the study’s authors write.

Read more43,381 Viruses Found In Sewage, Only 3,000 Of Them Are Known To Scientists

Experts Warn of Impending Phosphorus Crisis

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Just four countries – Morocco, China, South Africa and Jordan – control 80 percent of the world’s reserves of usable phosphate.

Experts Warn of Impending Phosphorus Crisis
Phosphorus is essential to agriculture, but experts warn reserves are starting to run out.

The element phosphorus is essential to human life and the most important ingredient in fertilizer. But experts warn that the world’s reserves of phosphate rock are becoming depleted. Is recycling sewage the answer?

They sift the powder through their fingers, smell it and admire its soft, brownish shimmer. The members of the delegation from Japan, dressed in black suits and yellow helmets, stand attentively in a factory building in Leoben, Austria, marveling at a seemingly miraculous transformation, as stinking sewage sludge is turned into valuable ash.

Nothing suggests that the brown dust comes from a cesspool. It doesn’t smell, is hygienic and is as safe as sand in a children’s sandbox. It’s also valuable. The powder has a phosphate content of around 16 percent. Phosphate, the most important base material in mineral fertilizer, is currently trading at about €250 ($335) a ton.

Untreated sewage sludge was once dumped onto fields as liquid manure, until it became apparent how toxic it is. Human excretions are full of heavy metals, hormones, biphenyls — and drugs. New processing plants are designed to remove these toxins far more effectively than before, thereby paving the way for the use of sewage sludge in safe, human fertilizer. Ash Dec, the company that operates the pilot plant in Leoben, has dubbed the program “Ash to Cash.”

This unconventional approach could be important for all of mankind. While the term “peak oil” — the point at which production capacity will peak before oil wells gradually begin to run dry — is well known, fewer people know that phosphate reserves could also be running out. Experts refer to this scenario as “peak phosphorus.”

Read moreExperts Warn of Impending Phosphorus Crisis

Metropolitan Wastewater Ends Up In Urban Agriculture

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Wastewater is most commonly used to produce vegetables and cereals (especially rice), according to this and other IWMI reports, raising concerns about health risks for consumers, particularly of vegetables that are consumed uncooked.

As developing countries confront the first global food crisis since the 1970s as well as unprecedented water scarcity, a new 53-city survey conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) indicates that most of those studied (80 percent) are using untreated or partially treated wastewater for agriculture.

In over 70 percent of the cities studied, more than half of urban agricultural land is irrigated with wastewater that is either raw or diluted in streams.

Read moreMetropolitan Wastewater Ends Up In Urban Agriculture

Los Angeles Eyes Sewage as a Source of Water

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Persistent drought and the threat of tighter water supplies prompted Los Angeles’s plans to begin using heavily cleansed sewage to increase drinking water supplies.

(So what comes out of your faucet is what your neighbor flushed down the toilet, but it’s heavily cleansed, with some extra added highly toxic fluoride, maybe iodine….and of course it’s highly chlorinated too – all for your safety.You can trust the government with your life, or can’t you??? To life then….ohhh shit! Los Angeles, another no-go area.
That’s another reason why I told you that you need your own well. – The Infinite Unknown)

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: May 16, 2008
Source: The New York Times

US: Raw sewage is continuously released into rivers, streams

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America’s aging sewer systems continue to dump human waste into rivers and streams, despite years of fines and penalties targeting publicly owned agencies responsible for sewage overflows, a Gannett News Service analysis shows.

The analysis of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data found that since 2003, hundreds of municipal sewer authorities have been fined for violations, including spills that make people sick, threaten local drinking water and kill aquatic animals and plants.

DATABASE: Sewer treatment plant reports by state

Local governments across the USA plan to spend billions modernizing failing wastewater systems — some of which are more than 100 years old — over the next 10 to 20 years, EPA, state and local sewer authority officials said.

(If any disaster happens in your area you will have no drinking water. Store a lot of food and water.
I have also highly recommended to have a water filter and there are a million good reasons for that. – The Infinite Unknown)

Read moreUS: Raw sewage is continuously released into rivers, streams