ArkieGold
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A Juvenile Earthworm
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Is it in the worms? - 2009/05/02 08:51
I recently attended a yearly conference for Arkansas Waste Water Association and Arkansas Water Environmental Association. As a WW operator, myself and others are required to attend to keep our license hours current.
One hourly topic was the affect of prescription drugs in the waste stream and it's affect on fishes. Seems the "acceptable" method of disposal for unused pharmicuticals is to flush them down the toilet. The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality speaker listed several reasons why this is not an acceptable practice. Like everything else, it ends up killing fish and female birth control pill residual is changing male fish into female fish, thus causing an eventual extinction of species and longterm drastic effects to the food chain.
The following topic was "PyroMed". Small groups of like minded environmental concious people who are doing something to help lessen the amounts of unused drugs being introduced into our waterways.
Before the discussion began I somewhat embarrased myself in talking to the lady who was to speak about some of the previous topic. I explained I was conducting a pilot project with worms in our city sewage sludge and maybe the worms would be able to remove drug residue from the solids portion of the waste stream. She said..."The drug residues have been found in earthworms as well, what are you going to do with them?" My answer..."Well I suppose we could burn the worms and pollute the air"! Then she talked about PyroMed...
PyroMed groups use approved, efficient incinerators to dispose of unused medications like the Drug Terminator. They work in conjunction with local law enforcement to provide places people can bring their unused medications and have them disposed of along with when law enforcement disposes of confiscated illegal drugs. In one year, one group had successfully diverted 900lbs of unused medications from the waste stream.
So can worms remove drug/medication residues from wastewater solids? If yes, in doing so do they retain it in their bodies to die and return the residues to the soil? What about the castings from ingesting medications in the feedstock? Are they free from residues? Remains to be seen I suppose. So what do we do with the worms that have residues of chemicals in their bodies?
How does your local law enforcement dispose of evidence? Burning in an open top burn barrel is not acceptable and illegal. You might open a can of worms as I have in my local government by pointing out their error. The Drug Incinerator is not overly expensive and every little bit we can do to help stop soil and water contamination will have long term benefits.
Post edited by: ArkieGold, at: 2009/05/02 08:53
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