More on phosphorus: More like this please!

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Here's an encouraging story about a sewer treatment plant that has added a phosphorus recovery module. There are still huge problems with using sewage sludge as fertilizer --- because we don't have separate treatment facilities for industrial and commercial operations, our wastewater treatment plants are producing sludge loaded with heavy metals and other nasties that should not be allowed anywhere near food-producing land. But the phosphorus from the liquid component of the waste stream (urine carries much of the phosphorus we excrete) is not going to have that issue; the metals and such are going to be in the solid sludge component.

This is the sort of thing we need in every aspect of society: doing away with the idea of "waste" and closing all of our waste streams, turning them into loops instead. Note that this process turns what was a pollutant back into a valuable commercial resource. There are similar opportunities everywhere you look.

Ostara's technology removes 90 to 94 percent of the phosphorous and 20 percent of its ammonia the first time through, then transforms the nutrients into tiny, fertilizer pellets about the size of barley.

The fertilizer takes nine months to dissolve in soil -- a speed so slow it never leaches into the water table, Baur said.

Ostara is working with Mt. Angel-based Wilco, St. Paul-based Marion Ag Service and other partners in Oregon and Canada to distribute the new product.

Phosphorus, a nonrenewable and dwindling resource, is an important ingredient in fertilizer. Currently, it is mined in Florida and shipped across the country to Oregon and elsewhere, said Kennedy, who now serves on Ostara's board.

Crystal Green's local, less energy-intensive creation will make it less expensive, Baur said.

Of the 20 tons created at Durham since the Ostara reactors began operating in April, 11 were sold to the British Columbia Ministry of the Environment, which dumped it into nutrient-poor streams to help nourish the salmon population, Baur said.

The reactors are expected to produce 40 tons each month. Ostara used its first 20 tons as a test-run of the facility. Starting with fertilizer produced Wednesday, Ostara will pay Clean Water Services a per-ton amount that is expected to bring in at least $400,000 a year.

Along with money saved through operating efficiencies created by the new process, Clean Water Services expects to pay back its $2.5 million investment in five years or less -- and start making money after that.

Washington County Commissioner Roy Rogers has already had some experience with the product. His said his wife tossed some onto a Christmas cactus that hadn't bloomed for years. Now, he said, "The thing will not stop blooming."