#1....exactly....you were asking what was the most ethical way to dispose of of waste water nutrient solutions... the water treatment plant where i'm at DOES filter waste water nutrient solutions COMPLETELY i called them and asked specifically about the nutrients i use (some dyna gro and some AN products) and the levels we use (ec below 3.0) and they said they DO filter it out they do offer tours, so hey, i may even go check it out one of these days but yeah, completely ethical to pour waste water nutrient solutions down the drain where i'm at sorry if i came off as hostile to you, didn't mean it to seem that way in fact, the water treatment employee was almost....insulted....sounding when i was asking if and slightly suggesting the levels of nutrients i was talking about could possibly affect them negatively
Ya, sorry obsstar, I have to disagree.... Here is a nice quick read on Pollution of the Ocean by Sewage, Nutrients, and Chemicals... Pollution of the Ocean by Sewage, Nutrients, and Chemicals - river, sea, oceans, percentage, types, system, plants, source, marine, oxygen, human, Pacific The sad thing, they leave us to bare the cost of this, which we ALL KNOW that even the people which do care, have no choice because of costs to properly dispose the used nutrients.. Because they force us inside, they force us to bare the burden of this injustice... Now another route would be not disposing them at all, but using them elsewhere, such as lawn and outside gardens.. Of course with excessive nutrient changes, we're faced with leaching and runoff into the sewer systems again... But IMHO, with the proper management of the nutrient itself, we do not have to change as often, which allows nature more time to break down and or use up what we dumped the last change... I've personally have used both AN and GH, running on a 30 day refresh schedule.. I have run as long as 45 days without a change before starting to see ill nutrient disorders, which I'm sure that I could have fixed, but I simply decided to change with fresh at that point... That being said, again IMHO with the proper management of the nutrient, dumping of said, and management of the area(s) which you're dumping or using the used nutrients, I feel we can safely dispose of used nutrients... But that also would depend on the scale which you grow as well... If we look at the Nitrification process, we can see that we can manage the area(s) which we dump... (there is a pdf sec. link down, which is a pretty good read) So we can also manage the dumping areas as well, and again, it's my opinion, with proper management, it can be safly disposed of, and it's ALL a matter of US taking control and doing something about it, as opposed to thinking it's OK to dump unneeded waste down the sewers letting the water treatment plants deal with our mess.... Also IMO why the tap water is so high in some areas of the US... My tap comes out at 76F, 180-210ppm, @ 7.1-7.2 pH..... Unacceptable in my book and it's simply caused because they cannot handle it all, so why do we want to add more to the mess, then we stand as "naturalists".... Again, we're forced into this, but we still IMHO need to care and at least try to be as environmental friendly as we possible can, under the circumstances.. Sorry for the long post... Just my 2 cents.... ROCK-ON Brothers and Sisters....
You can adjust your feeding regime to become more friendly to the environment if that's what you're after. When I first joined this site one of the first things I noticed was there seemed to be some kind of ground rule as to how much run off to get in order to have healthy plants. I gave one example of a test I was running at that time. I had a plant in a bucket which was destined to be a hempy bucket.... I just hadn't drilled the hole out of the side yet... Anyway, as time passed, the plant stayed healthy... and more time passed.... and no problems. So I thought I'll keep the plant in the bucket, and see how long I can go without giving it a drainage hole. The plant went all the way to the chop without showing me any problems at all. Even before that I would let plants sit in their own run off and let them suck it back up. There's never been a need for a constant cycle of waste nutrient to keep my plants happy. If I were you, I'd start there. You can at least halve the amount of nutrients you're putting into the water supply by disregarding a few stoner myths.
I only do a 10% runoff so I'm on the low side for a run to waste system. I use the waste water on outdoor pots but never really let the water overflow onto the ground, the pots all have trays underneath. Obsstar? What happens to the chemicals after your water treatment plant removes? Your drinking water may be fine, but where do the filtered chemicals go? I'm not feeling like you asked the right questions. It seems you only asked about the quality of the water from your tap. Ask specifically where did the nutrients go and why aren't they in the water anymore? How is the water purified also would be useful? You don't honestly believe everyone with a drain can pour fertilizer down it without some negative effects?
I wonder what the impact might be to a septic system. Maybe it could be washed out with the grey water? Considering how many genuine chemicals there are in laundry detergents I would imagine that would be the better option for people not on a sewer system. Also, recycled water tastes nasty. The people I know who work in water treatment don't use their own treated water at home without filtering it themselves.
Sorry, maybe I miss understood because you're talking a 10% runoff of soil, and I was speaking about the hydroponic growers which dumps 50+ gallons down the drain.. Like when I change my res(s), I'm dealing with 110gal of used nutrients... So on a yearly bases I could be dumping close to 1,200 gallons of nutrient into the sewer system... Then let's talk about the hydro growers that use a 50gal res and change weekly like the nute companies suggest... That's 2,600 gallons per year of waste from 1 hydro grower...
not to derail the thread but let's remember where the greatest threat to our ecosystem is... the super corporate groups that regularly dump poisons into our waterways in order to control algal blooms, lillies, and other plants that could be more easily and cheaply controlled with ecological solutions (ie permaculture). These fuckers are poisoning the generations for a large profit and they have no remorse... forget about the wastewater from your plants... they are dumping more harsh toxins directly in the waterway, with more human and animal casualties than we can prove against them. If you want to take a stand against them locate the main areas of your watershed and get involved in stopping the deliberate poisioning and slaughter of the American people.
Theres nothing wrong with pouring your nute water into your garden. I do it all the time, and have crazy big tomatoes, okra, and various types of hot peppers. I dump it in the garden, and then water it down a little bit with the garden hose. I have a grapefruit ice plant out there too, hidden amongst the tomatoes, and she looks like she loves it too. Its better than flushing down the toilet or dumping it in the drain for sure.