Nicholas J. Ashbolt, Ph.D.
Speaking at the Westport River Watershed Alliance
Annual Meeting,
March 17th, 1 PM at the Westport Grange
Dr. Nick Ashbolt has graciously agreed to speak at our Annual Meeting this coming Saint Patrick’s day. Dr. Ashbolt is one of the most forward thinking experts in waste-water of our time. Dr. Ashbolt would most likely object to our using “waste” in front of water because, as he says, there is no “waste”. There are only poorly used natural resources that society must harness. “It’s all about money, residuals and resource recovery.” That’s why we invited him to speak.
To put this in context, Westport recently received the Massachusetts Estuary Program (MEP) report from the SMast program at UMass, Dartmouth. The MEP is our blueprint for cleaning up our waters, preventing further degradation and restoring them to their former health and vitality. There are old, expensive ways and there are simpler, inexpensive ways to do this. Dr. Ashbolt will talk about these simpler methods and why we should use them for the good of ourselves, our children and the planet.
Dr Ashbolt has stated that water conservation measures could ‘easily’ reduce household demand in developed countries by 70 per cent. He cited examples of water-saving devices included dry composting toilets with urine-diversion systems for capture of fertilizer nutrients and compost garden mulch and diverted yellow-water from communities providing nutrients for local agriculture. Alternatively, toilet and food residuals could be transported via a vacuum/pressure (blackwater-only) sewer, maximizing energy recovery potential via anaerobic digestion (to methane then electricity) with residuals providing a rich fertilizer. ‘These techniques can be used safely, even in fairly dense urban settings,’ said Dr. Ashbolt. Nicholas J. Ashbolt, Ph.D. is a Senior Research Microbiologist at the National Exposure Research Laboratory for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Cincinnati, Ohio.