The local paper mill has had problems meeting water quality requirements and many people wanted them to use land disposal (on their pine forest). The paper mill said that the effluent had too nuch salt and would kill the trees, but they did offer to mix it with the city sewage effluent water if the sewer plant is relocated to their part of the county and then spray it on the trees.

A nearby city (Gulf Breeze) uses golf courses and pine forest to dispose of their wastewater. The golf course users have complained of soggy ground at times because the golf course has to take a certain amount whether they need to water or not, but that hasn't been a problem lately.

One of the major causes of high salt levels in sewage water is that a lot of households are using salt-based water softeners.

There are many excellent salt-less water softeners today, and I plan to get one from Fleck. They have a non-energy consuming catalyst which which will precipitate out or actually remove excess salts r minerals from the water and then there's a filter cartrdige to catch the solidified sats.

This way, there is no need to buy salts, and no increase of salts in the sewage.

Didn't Rod Stuart sing about this in his 1970's classic song 'Maggie May'???
...Urine my heart, Urine my soil ...

Phillip,

Thanks for the great info!

Joe

dauben wrote:

JoeReal wrote: dauben wrote: We have an ordinance that doesn't allow water softeners within the District. However, we don't have a police force enforcing the ordinance and I doubt that anyone within our Boundary is aware of the law. Phillip That's actually a good idea. I would suggest it to our city council. There are alternatives to salt now. Do you have contact persons in your city council that I can suggest for our councilors or Mayor to call up? I don't know that any of our current Board members were around when the ordinances were adopted, but our Legislative Code can be found at: http://www.rmwd.org/legislativecode/code.pdf We have two sewer districts so it's listed in two spots, but Section 7.52.070 D 4 j on page 252 says, "j. Any brines, or brine discharges from water softening units in industries, commercial establishments and private dwellings. (Ord. 168 Art. 6 § 3, 1994)" Our relaimed water ordinance 7.44.110 C says, "C. Prohibition on Use of Regenerative Devices. Upon a determination pursuant to this section that regenerative water softeners within a tributary area may cause substantial harm or damage to any significant user or potential user of reclaimed water, the installation of any new regenerative water softening device shall be prohibited. (Ord. 118 § 6, 1990)" As far as the study on salinity that I was inquiring about earlier, it's my understanding that our agency was in contact with UC Davis in your neck of the woods to evaluate the production loss at various TDS levels of avocados a while back. I think we ran into some snags with separation requirements between water and recycled water mains and the study was postponed indefinitely. Now that we are in a drought and cutting water off to growers, there might be a renewed interest in reclaimed water. If they have a choice of letting their trees die or keeping them alive with recycled water until the drought is over, I know what I would choose. The TDS levels would probably persist in the soil for a while after the drought is over, but I can't imagine that it would take any longer than planting a new grove from scratch. Phillip

Since 2 years i feed my container plant with my compost, a little bit of wood ash and urine. Urine always gave great and quite immediate results. I just stop use it during the last 20-30 days before the fruit or vegetables are ready to be eaten.

I would like to share this http://netssaftutorial.com/fileadmin/DATA_CD/04_Step4/SE5._Guidelines_on_the_use_of_urine_and_faeces.pdf with you guys.

Bye!

Ivan

Just be aware that for CERTIFIED organic, human urine is not allowed.

Our local wastewater sewage treatment plant recycles human waste into a fertilizer that getting used throughout NZ.
Cheap and good results but probably has too much nitrogen for citrus.
The trouble is my border collie crosses eat it faster than I can spread it.
http://www.newplymouthnz.com/AtoZOfCouncilServices/Wastewater/Bioboost.htm

If one used Bioboost, one would have to add an additional source of potassium,and also most all of the trace minerals, in order to properly feed a citrus tree. Also it would have to be applied at a higher rate of application. - Millet (945-)

So old thread, thanks for the information guys.

..

from now on, i will pee regularly on my trees, especially after watering.