Ocean dumping: An old and known sewage sludge method

"Sludge: back into the ocean?"- An article by D. V. Feliciano in the October 1981 issue of the Journal of the Water Pollution Control Federation (U.S.) on the subject of sludge dumping at sea focus attention on a matter of considerable importance in the protection of the total environment. -Controversy over ocean dumping of sludge is once again under public scrutiny, courtesy of the US courts which have ruled that the ocean should be considered as a viable alternative disposal site when the action will not unreasonably degrade the marine environment' is Feliciano's statement of the situation. The choice of the word 'disposal', it was pointed out, was meant to signify dispersal of sludge at sea under controlled conditions without causing undesirable effects or ecological damage, as opposed to the harmful consequences that could follow unrestricted dumping of sludge at badly chosen sites. Present methods of disposal of high-bulk low-toxicity wastes, such as sewage sludge, into shallow marine environments are beginning to be questioned by many environmentalists. The alternative options generally considered all have environmental costs. A novel approach of discharging such wastes as slurries into the deep ocean at depths of 4,000 m close to the abyssal sea bed is considered. Such disposal would fulfil all the criteria required by the Oslo Convention before dumping at sea can be permitted, in that it isolates the waste from Man's ambit and offers no threat to present or foreseeable uses of the ocean. It also seems to fulfil the criteria of the World Conservation Strategy, so long as the oxygen levels in the deep waters of the ocean are not reduced excessively. The improvements in the quality of coastal seas would offset the doubling in the economic cost of disposal. � 2012 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.