HALBRITE, Sask. – Thirsty trees will soon do their part to help this tiny community manage its waste water.
Rows of poplar, acute willow and berry bushes next to the municipal lagoon just outside Halbrite form a six-acre, effluent irrigated woodlot.
About 300 metres of perforated irrigation pipe connected to the lagoon’s second cell line the edge of the trees.
Municipal waste water that normally re-enters surface water through twice yearly releases will instead irrigate the trees.
The project was the first to be established in Saskatchewan; the town of Stoughton and the NorAmera BioEnergy ethanol plant at Weyburn also have projects that are almost ready to go.
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“Next spring we’ll turn on the tap,” said Halbrite mayor Dwayne Carlson. “It’s nice to be on the cutting edge of something.”
The first trees were planted in 2005, after the village of 98 people started looking for options.
Effluent from the lagoon was normally pumped into a nearby stream. The water would then flow into the Rafferty Dam reservoir and farther on downstream.
Carlson said council wasn’t happy with that practice and approached Rodney Sidloski at HELP International, a Weyburn-based non-profit corporation that does extensive environmental work.
“We knew trees would do it,” Carlson said.
Sidloski said three mature trees will use up the 1,000 litres of waste water that each home in Halbrite produces daily on average. According to Statistics Canada, Halbrite has 46 private homes and a number of businesses.
The 10,000 trees planted on six acres are far more than the village needs to absorb its nutrient-laden effluent but will provide other benefits, such as carbon storage.
Sidloski said the problem with the common practice of releasing waste water into water systems is that waste water contains too much plant food such as nitrogen, which promotes algae growth and kills fish.
The United Nations claims that more than two million sq. kilometres of fresh and salt water are dead zones because of human waste water.
Sidloski said returning toilet nutrient waste to where it belongs can alleviate this. Humans eat plants or meat from animals that have eaten plants, he said. The waste originally came from the soil and should be returned there to complete the nutrient cycle.
“Plant food is not fish food,” he said. “The system is out of kilter.”
Even using a garburetor to grind up waste and send it into the sewer system is a bad idea, he said.
Virtually all lagoons leak or seep, even with clay liners, he added, so planting trees nearby will help control the nutrient release.
In Halbrite, the lagoons are next to a decommissioned landfill and were leaching into it.
The village and HELP established a forest landfill cap, a technology that Stoughton is also working with.
Trees planted on the former landfill will absorb the toxins, Sidloski said.
Although industrial wastes are often singled out for concern, he said the mixture of household wastes cooks up a toxic stew that can seep into underground water supplies.
Planting trees to absorb cadmium, mercury and lead will help control contamination, at least for a while.
“It’s still going to happen,” Sidloski agreed, noting that trees can only absorb so much for so long.
“Between 20 and 30 years and we’re back to the very same scenario.”
The landfill project does not include berry-producing trees because the trees will end up being toxic. The end use for such trees isn’t yet known but Sidloski speculated it would have to be controlled. He added that researchers will monitor the woodlots and landfill caps. They need to know how much effluent water a tree can absorb and still remain healthy so they can advise communities of different sizes how many acres to plant.
HELP is talking with the city of Weyburn about establishing an effluent irrigation woodlot near its secondary lagoons. Other communities are also interested.
As Sidloski and Carlson examined their trees on a recent site visit, they marveled at how well the trees had established.
Carlson is anticipating talking to other municipal councils about the project. He expects many will want to follow the example set by his village.
