TOXIC CONSEQUENCES (eBook)

The Alchemical Dynamics of Toxic Sewage Sludge(c)

Richard C. Honour PhD (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
392 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3178-2179-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Toxic Consequences: The Alchemical Dynamics of Toxic Sewage Sludge© is offered as an informative and experiential resource guide that seeks to raise public awareness among industry, Agencies, Elected Officials, Sludge Traffickers and the general public about the dangers of Land-Disposed Toxic Sewage Sludge and its residuals, products and byproducts, including the dangers posed by Toxic Landfill Leachates, Toxic Wastewater Effluents, Toxic Sewage Sludge, Toxic Physical or Manufactured Inerts, Toxic Sludge Runoff, Toxic Grit and Toxic Off-Gassing. These hazards contaminate and pollute our air, food, soil and water, presenting adverse effects that impact biodiversity, sustainability, environmental stability, Climate Catastrophe and Public Health. Toxic Sewage Sludge is toxic and dangerous, never safe for Human or environmental contact or exposure, especially as a result of disposal in or upon our lands or in our wetlands, surface or ground waters, or by any form of Human contact, yet all are well-known, albeit ignored proclamations, for Toxic Waste is always Toxic.

Richard C. Honour, PhD, is a graduate of San Diego State University, San Diego, CA. with a BS Degree in Biology and Environmental Sciences, and the University of California, Riverside, CA. with a PhD Degree in Soil Microbiology and Plant Pathology. He is the Author of Toxic Insult: A Global War On Public Health. © Bookbaby, Pennsauken, NJ 08110. He is an Author of Sludge Tracker, Toxicus ad Infinitum.© Richard C. Honour, PhD & Michelle Horkings-Brigham, 2022, Horus Publishing, Inc., McKenna, WA.

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Toxic Consequences: The Alchemical Dynamics of Toxic Sewage Sludge(c) reveals how the planned and deliberate disposal of toxic wastes into our air, food, soil and water adds to chronic disease, accelerates Climate Catastrophe and the Carbon Bomb, and threatens biodiversity, sustainability and global security. Toxic exposures, as enabled by agencies and industry, threaten Quality of Life, most especially by lengthening the Gap between healthspan and lifespan, for while many people may now live a longer life, they often spend more of their later years in poor health. The added time we enjoy now as a longer lifespan presents a Public Health dilemma, both financially and with respect to quality of life, for duration of life in concert with quality of life is a precious asset, not to be squandered by thoughtless waste disposal practices. We must improve the safety and management of the waste products of our infrastructure systems to better control the adverse consequences of exposure of people and our living environment to waste streams that present immediate and long-term systemic threats to human and environmental health, not as a worry, but in fact.

Textauszug

PROLOGUE

Author’s Dirge: Toxic Consequences seeks to reveal just some of the environmental, social, political and economic impacts of our presence on Earth, to be realized as our ultimate fate, in that our behaviors impact the life-supporting systems of our personal existence, as a matter of course.

The inevitable outcome of life is the end-of-life, so our job is to support and enhance the quality of health and of life while we’re here, despite the challenges offered by our very existence. A key obstacle to life is death, if by the fact of living, or by human action or inaction. The relevant point is that the primary causes of death revolve around how responsibly and thoughtfully we live our lives and how well we work to avoid the death of ourselves and others, while protecting the Earth.

International agencies explain that no matter where you may live on Earth, or how well you conduct your lifestyle, the primary causes of death remain as: Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Diabetes and Antibiotic-Resistant Infections, while an ‘untimely’ death denotes the outcome of smoking (idem: Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), alcohol (idem: Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer), diet, obesity and an Inactive Lifestyle and Exposure to Environmental Toxics (idem: Diabetes).

More chilling and more relevant today is that the latest confirmed principal cause of Human death globally is Antibiotic-Resistant Infections that originate in our Sewershed, no matter the country of origin or the engineering design or format, and no matter the best of ideas, engineering plans and intent, or the obfuscating or contrived agency, political or engineering storylines.

Death by Antibiotic-Resistant Bacterial Infections means death by bacterial infectious agents that are resistant to antibacterial antibiotics, while death by Antifungal Agent-Resistant Fungal Infectious Agents implies death by fungi that have developed resistance to commercially-available antifungal drugs, of which there are few remaining with any effect at all.

The complicating factor is that Antibiotic-Resistant Bacterial Infectious Agents are created primarily in Wastewaters, and include many bacteria that were not historically considered as being Human or animal infectious agents. As well, they were not found to be resistant to commercially-available antibiotics, revealing that the ineffective sampling and monitoring of Toxic Sewage Sludge and Toxic Wastewater Effluents from a Wastewater Treatment Plant, or the leachates therefrom, is and always has been misdirected, inadequate and wholly unfocused. These antibiotic-resistant infectious agents are substantial causes of death globally, awaiting new drugs.

It is the favorable incubating environment of our waste streams that incite and support the creation of new and novel infectious agents that are also resistant to a vast and ever-declining menu of antibiotics, also encountered within the same Wastewater environment. These wastewater environments create bacterial and fungal infectious agents that produce highly virulent strains that assure the death of the infected host, Human or otherwise. This vast menu of bacterial and fungal infectious agents created within the crucible or incubator of a wastewater Sewershed and Collector System inflow stream, or within a WWTP itself, creates the perfect environment for the creation and emergence of additional, novel antimicrobial agent-resistant infectious agents, now revealed.

We must know that inappropriate testing or reporting for the sake of compliance, positioned as authorization for Land-Disposal of Toxic Sewage Sludge in our forests, surface waters and ground waters, and onto our farms, along with uncontrolled leaching and runoff into our surface and groundwaters, and into our food crop irrigation sources, which place us at high risk, do not work. Couple this decades-out-of-date approach with an underappreciation of the incubation dynamics of a Wastewater Treatment Plant, plus the inappropriate agency criteria for use of Toxic Wastewater Effluents for irrigation, are based on directed detection of just two common bacteria, a few metals and a couple of inappropriate animal parasites, then we can conclude there are no safe and effective criteria to provide a safety basis for use of Toxic Sewage Sludge as a fertilizer or Toxic Wastewater Effluents for crop irrigation, or for release back to the Environment.

This book aims to motivate agencies to protect the public from a growing set of Toxics laid upon us by ineffective wastewater treatment systems, and to strive toward extended healthspans and lifespans by excluding the major risks presented by these toxic exposures. Agencies cannot be inspired to protect the public, for the very idea of there being a cost or an adverse effect of their practices and behaviors leaves them dulled, in denial, depressed, rejected and cast asunder.

Global Perspective: Across the globe, many nations have adopted advanced thermal treatment technologies, such as Fluidized Bed Combustion (FBC)16 in its many adaptive forms to safely manage and neutralize Toxic Sewage Sludge, as one example. Countries like Japan, Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Switzerland, where land disposal of Toxic Sludge is restricted, operate dozens of efficient FBC plants that thermally destroy pathogens and persistent organic pollutants, rendering the resulting ash inert and suitable for broad reuse.

In Canada, FBC plants in Alberta and Quebec process Toxic Sewage Sludge and municipal solid wastes to generate renewable clean energy and reduce landfill dependency. In the U.S., FBC systems are operational in states such as Connecticut, Maryland, and New Jersey, treating tens of thousands of dry tons of sludge annually with over 90% volume reduction, and capturing pollutants that otherwise leach into soil or escape to the atmosphere. Manufacturers such as Metso Outotec, ANDRITZ, Hitachi Zosen, ThermoChem Recovery International and PyroGenesis demonstrate that modern FBC technology can operate with low emissions, high thermal efficiency and reliable energy recovery when coupled with scrubbers and advanced gas cleaning systems.

Despite the clear advantages of FBC, Washington State and others in the U.S. remain resistant to safe and effective solutions to the deadly scourge of Toxic Sewage Sludge from Wastewater Treatment Plants. Clinging to outdated methods, such as Land-Disposal of Toxic Sewage Sludge, stated as “beneficial reuse,” yet without any Comprehensive Qualitative Analytical Chemistry Analysis, represents a threat to Human life. These obsolete and dangerous practices spread a mix of industrial and pharmaceutical contaminants and pollutants onto farms and into forests, without monitoring of the immediate or cumulative health or ecological risks or threats.

The political inertia for the Land-Disposal of Toxic Sewage Sludge and for the water disposal of Toxic Wastewater Effluents and Toxic Landfill Leachates, stems from entrenched bureaucratic loyalties, outdated regulatory frameworks and the financial interests of contractors who profit from land disposal. Agencies once served the better interests of the public, but now appear paralyzed by fear of admitting the vast scale of toxic contamination and death under their watch.

Successful examples of FBC systems are disregarded or slandered, labeled “too expensive,” “too complex,” or “not applicable,” despite clear data proving otherwise. This willful ignorance comes at great cost to Public Health, environmental integrity and scientific credibility.

The Land-Disposal of Toxic Sewage Sludge (TSS) from any Wastewater Treatment Plant in any forest or on any farm is dangerous, polluting, far out of date and wholly unjustified in light of the available modern engineering systems and technologies that convert TSS into renewable clean energy and valuable ash for industry.

Local Perspective: “The Solution to Pollution is Dilution,” OMG! The peculiar statement, “The solution to pollution is dilution,” originates from a 19th-century engineering and a Public Health paradigm that viewed flowing rivers and oceans as convenient, inexpensive and “natural” ways to dispose of human and industrial waste. It was widely accepted into the early 20th century, and only began to be questioned after repeated ecological and Public Health disasters made the consequences visible. The idea that “one of our greatest natural resources is our streams and rivers that take away our wastes” has its roots in 19th- and early 20th-century sanitation engineering and Public Health philosophy, a period when industrial societies first began grappling with urban and industrial waste, and the resulting diseases, on a large scale.

Historical Origins and Context - Victorian Sanitation and the Dilution Solution: In the mid- to late-1800s and well into the early 1900s, during the rise of modern cities in Europe and the U.S., rivers and streams were viewed as the most convenient and efficient means of removing Human and industrial wastes. The prevailing belief was encapsulated in the phrase: “The solution to pollution is dilution,” which reflected the early sanitary engineering mindset: If you could move wastes away fast enough, and into a large body of water, the problem was solved. Civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who designed London’s sewer system after the “Great Stink” of 1858, epitomized this idea. His system carried sewage directly into the Thames below the...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.12.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Technik
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3178-2179-1 / 9798317821791