It is time that we are getting onto this bandwagon of innovation. We claim in Ontario that we know how to produce clean water from dirty water. It's time we created the energy and clean water from pee and sludge that will see you and me in a community that is free from septic systems and sewers. This is not an unrealistic expectation for the next decade, so why are we still stinking thinking about sewers. It's like an alcoholic that does know the effects of stinking thinking.
We know the farmers here around can potentially pollute our rivers with many toxins more so than the villages and beach homes. The farmers should be made to re-examine their role in environmental development not destruction. Similarly, we should be given assistance to produce energy rather than pollutants out of individual households. It only takes innovations in conversion products to transform forever the way we manage farm effluent, toxins and sludge.
It would make you pretty sick to feel that you had spent millions on a sewerage system yourself that benefits those innovating in the energy field. At the very least, you would want to be paid for your human waste and waste water. Water can be filtered and sold. You pay for it so you should be able to earn an income from it. As it stands people give this energy source the push just the same way cattle do.
That is changing. As I write, a friend is initiating the first steps to innovate in the UK a system of using agricultural sludge and other bio-matter to create energy products. There is money in human waste. Farmers use it, but don't tell you. The bio-energy industry is in it's nacient steps, but before long the sewerage problems of past generations could be history as we transform a potential pollutant and source of disease into clean energy.
In its simplest form, we have what Sintex has done to create units for production of energy from biogas:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/26/news/international/kahn_biogas.fortune/index.htm
More complicated systems to create energy are envisioned in the United States. Just think how communities and households could alter the landscape by producing products that would be good for the environment and dramatically reduce bio-pollutants.
The Canadian Company Dyomotive has plans to turn human waste into oil:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/nov/29/energy.ethicalliving
The BBC Science team reports on the potential:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/768672.stm
The list of potential products from human and animal waste is quite long:
http://buildaroo.com/news/article/vw-bio-bug-energy-human-waste/
The bright sparks in urban communities are catching on, as in San Antonio, Texas:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0937395520080910
Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.