Can sewage waste be a resource?
The St. John’s Harbour Clean-Up project has started and with it has discussion around the issue of waste management. Diana Cardoso, a former environmental science graduate student at Memorial, recently completed a literature review on biosolids management options for St. John’s. The review is part of the St. John’s Atlantic Coastal Action Program’s (ACAP) St. John’s Harbour Clean-Up Project in partnership with the Faculty of Science’s Environmental Science Program. Dr. Robert Helleur, Chemistry, assisted Ms. Cardoso with the project. According to Ms. Cardoso, biosolids are the product generated after the treatment of sewage sludge, which emerges after the treatment of domestic sewage. What to do with the biosolids is a concern. The report first reviewed the St. John’s Biosolids Management Plan Report (BMP), which concluded that due to cost, the lack of a composting facility, an incinerator, and other infrastructures capable of working with biosolids, the biosolids should be put into Ro