A Niagara-on-the-Lake scientist is capturing interest in the United States
with his pioneering efforts to purify municipal sewage with bullrushes.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is interested in contributing financially
to Edgar Lemon's three year-old "wetlands project," EPA official Donald
Brown said in an interview yesterday.
In return for the money, which could total up to $120,000 (USD), the agency
wants Lemon and his assistants to continue the project for two more years so
it can monitor the results. Brown, an environmental engineer at EPA's research
centre in Cincinnati, Ohio, said Lemon's work could determine if wetlands can
be used for treating sewage in colder climates.
Several communities are successfully using wetlands to purify sewage in the
southern U.S., said Brown, "but we don't have data on cold-climate wetlands".
Brown is coming to Niagara-on-the-Lake next month to observe the project in
action.
Lemon and the Friends of Fort George, a local preservation group assisting in
the endeavor, are hoping their efforts will help revolutionize the way municipal
sewage is treated.
The project is being conducted next to the sewage treatment plant for Niagara-on-the-Lake's
old town. It uses the root bed of bulrushes to filter contaminants from sewage
effluent.
Tests conducted in an Ontario government laboratory show the bulrushes are purifying
the sewage enough to meet all the province's guidelines for protecting the environment.
Lemon, a retired Cornell University researcher who settled in Niagara-on-the-Lake
in the mid-1980s, says he's convinced wetlands offer a less costly, more environmentally
friendly way of treating sewage.
The project is already receiving financial support from the province's Ministry
of Environment.
The ministry provides an annual $15,000 grant and also spends about $1,000 a
week to analyze the sewage effluent in a laboratory.
John Kernahan, Niagara Region's director of public works, said recently he's
also impressed enough with the project to try it on a full scale.
The Region is meeting with the province to discuss the possibility of using
the bulrushes in a smaller community like Campden in Lincoln, where sewage frequently
leaks into groundwater from septic tanks.
Brown said yesterday the EPA is counting on the province and Region to continue
their support while his agency is involved in the project.
The agency has already applied to Washington for the grant money, said Brown,
and is now awaiting final approval.
Some extra red tape is involved, he added, since the project is taking place
in another country.
