"LIVING MACHINES" TURN A SEWER IN CHINA INTO A WATER PARK

The Winter 2004 issue of YES! is all about water - the battles, reclamation strategies, watersheds, abuses and resources, plus the recurring question of "whose water?" One article discusses the work of an old friend of BioCycle John Todd of Ocean Arks International whose "living machines" systems have been profiled in these pages. Here are excerpts from the YES! article titled "A Sewer Becomes a Water Park by Karen Charman:

In Fuzhou, a crowded city of 2.5 million in southeast China, an elaborate network of canals runs through the urban center. The water they carry is grey and lifeless, laden with raw sewage and all manner of garbage. A miraculous thing is happening on a tiny portion of the city's 100 miles of canals. A floating ecological living machine is restoring the water to health.

Last autumn, Todd's nonprofit company, Ocean Arks International, installed the system, called Restorer, on 600 meters of canal that border high-rise apartment buildings, restaurants, shops, a temple and a school. The section of canal has 40 influent points bringing in waste from 12,000 people. After just one year of operation, the water beside the Restorer is clear, no longer stinks, and contains abundant fish, reports Charman.

The canal is also meeting the technical standards Fuzhou officials set. Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), has dropped tenfold from a suffocating 150 to a pretty clean 15 on most days. Ammonia levels are down to 10 to 15 parts per million from around 80 ppm. Dissolved oxygen, which is necessary to support life, has increased to a healthy six parts per thousand (ppt) from between 0.3 and 0.5 ppt.

Continues Charman: "Doing the impossible in Fuzhou canal's Restorer are 100,000 plants, 10,000 koi carp fish, and two strains of bacteria. The plant roots house the bacteria. The fish and one of the strains of bacteria consume the sewage solids. The other strain converts the ammonia into a more benign form."

For more information on the water issue and YES!, Contact the Positive Futures Network, 284 Madrona Way NE, Suite 116, Bainbridge Island, Washington 98110; visit yesmagazine.org; or call (206) 842-0216. In its Nov.-Dec. 2002 issue, In Business magazine profiled John Todd and his Restorer system in a report, "Making Ecological Design Pay." For details, contact: www.inbusiness.org or call (610) 967-4135, ext. 22.