Richard Honour

Richard Honour

Mar 12, 2015

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Septage for lunch

In the same area of eastern King County, WA, where we are investigating the forest-disposed sewage sludge, lo and behold, we encountered what appears to be a discarded load of septage (Septage = Partially treated sludge stored in a septic tank, generally human waste).

So, as a preliminary look at the potential toxicity of this land-surface-discarded waste, our academic colleagues performed a typical Cricket feeding experiment with a sample of the septage sludge material.

The results show that crickets prefer dried lumps of septage waste for dinner over their usual top choice meal of Fluker's 'Orange Cube,' a typical diet for lab-raised crickets. Oh, my!

It will be interesting to see how they like dried lumps of the toxic wastewater treatment plant sewage sludge in a next experiment. It kills nearly all forest biota, except for our short list of mushrooms, so what about the crickets?

Fluker's 'Orange Cube' Cricket Diet: Ingredients: Water, Carageenan, Soya Protein, Dried Brewer's Yeast, Dried Kelp, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium, Sorbate, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid, Yellow #6 Food Color. Contents: Crude Protein not less than 3.5%, Crude Fat not less than 0.1%, Crude Fiber not more than 0.5%, Moisture not more than 92%, Calcium not less than 560 ppm – Yum!


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About This Project

The Precautionary Group

We've discovered a few new mushrooms thriving in this harsh environment of land-disposed sewage sludge in Snoqualmie, Washington. We're testing these mushrooms for new antimicrobial properties. Microbes that survive exposure to toxic sewage sludge engage adaptive mechanisms that transform toxins into secondary metabolites.

Blast off!

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