Talk about stepping up to the plate.
While it’s not often this space is dedicated to congratulations, we feel Banff Park Lodge’s stellar effort in anteing up $100,000 for earthquake and tsunami assistance in Japan warrants some positive ink.
Further, the fact The Rotary Foundation of Canada matched the dollars raised at A Night for Japan at Wild Bill’s Saloon last week ($135,000) is a fine example of the work done by service clubs everywhere.
Thanks to the efforts of the Lodge and Foundation, businesses, volunteers and Valley citizens in our communities, well over a quarter million dollars will be put toward needed projects in the hard-struck island nation.
The manner in which efforts and dollars were put forward is heart warming, to say the least, and is pretty much what we’ve come to expect from the Bow Valley.
What goes around…
It would appear that, at least when it comes to Valley waste, what goes around comes around.
For some time now, the MD of Bighorn has been exploring the idea of treating sewage sludge with lime kiln dust, a by-product of the Graymont operation at Exshaw, to produce a biologically inert Class-A compost product which could be used in reclamation projects.
In the case of what the MD and Graymont are looking at, treated sludge would mixed with lime kiln dust (LKD), a waste product produced in the manufacture of lime, that produces an exothermic reaction that allows the piles to reach 52 C and a pH of 12 or higher.
That combination of temperature and pH kills pathogens, but does not harm beneficial bacteria, while binding water-soluble heavy metals into the material, keeping the metals from spreading into the water table.
The end product is planned to be used in quarry reclamation in the area.
Currently, the MD/Graymont project has passed every critical test, including lab studies, field trials conducted at the Dead Man’s Flats sewage lagoons and plant growth trials.
Researchers at the University of Alberta have also proven the lime-amended sludge could support plant growth, specifically two native grasses, wheat and fescue, and a forb, which is an herbaceous flowering plant.
We wonder then, why the Town of Banff, a member of the Bow Valley Waste Commission, has overlooked the work already done in the MD in favour of looking to partner with a private company to turn its composted sewage into a new, similar product (page 18).
If accumulating compost from Banff’s wastewater treatment plant has become a problem, with no market to be found, perhaps the Town should look no further than its neighbour to the east. Possibly, rather than putting money into start-up costs for a process which would possibly create a marketable product, the focus should be on intermunicipal co-operation.
Rather than looking at selling a compost/LKD product, with the MD and Graymont the idea is simply to find a way to treat sewage waste with 7,000 tonnes of waste LKD product produced annually and keep it out of landfills.
When you look at the Town of Canmore’s cost of $500,000 to haul biosolids to a landfill, maybe using LKD-amended compost for local remediation projects is enough.
