[SustainableTompkins] waste stream thread

[Joel and Sarah Gagnon]

Tom wrote:

>The only problem here is that much human urine is not "organic" in the
>sense that we have so many food additives, antibiotics and other
>drugs/chemicals in our bodies, due to the prevalence of synthetic
>industrial chemicals in our environment, that the urine passed by the
>average American would not meet the criteria for "organic", as in "organic
>gardening".   Now if a person doesn't take any pharmaceuticals and you eat
>and drink only organic foods/beverages, this would probably be a
>non-issue.   My $.02.  Tom
Our urine is normally as organic in the ag sense of the word as anything 
grown using it. The occasional exception is a round of antibiotics, which I 
was in fact concerned about putting into the septic tank, lest it upset the 
bugs we depend on there. Such contaminated urine is much better spread on 
the ground where light and oxygen can get at it and a far greater array of 
microbes can attack it. I used it on grass, rather than in the garden. Keep 
in mind that one of the problems with sewers and so-called wastewater 
treatment plants is that some of this stuff survives and ends up in the 
discharge water. Tales of sexually weird and malformed fish due to hormones 
in birth control pills surviving treatment validate such a concern. Best to 
keep that stuff out of the water.

Joel