E. coli outbreak. Are people using "brown water" on crops

Brown water would be one step up from regular sewer water. Could have bacteria. Hard to wash off the bacteria when it was inside the plant.

What do you think? Are they using brown water to irrigate crops?

No but human waste is used by 200 million farms according to this: news.nationalgeographic.com...

reply to post by Golithion


Such practices might not be completely safe.

Hope no one else gets sick.

reply to post by yourmamaknows


That's true they claim that it is safe, but I don't know how I feel about eating plants and grains grown in human poo, it's kind of like cannibalism in a way. Cow poo yeah, human bad. I know that sound's funny but it wasn't mean't to be.

Its not human poo

By the time it reaches the end of the plant and is applied it has gone from human waste to bug excretions to essentially soil again. All the micro-organisms used in wastewater treatment are soil based organisms. Not to mention they are completely destroyed using whatever process the plant wants to use for disinfection.
(Theres alot more to the process but for time purposes I shortened it)

Maybe brown water is being used in other countries.... who knows, the regulations are very questionable at best.

But...

In the United States, land application of properly dewatered, and digested sludge (if you will) is used on crops that do not lie in the soil. Thats why you will typically see corn or winter wheat being planted in those areas. There are quality control procedures taken everyday to insure safety. There is a grading system used to determine what is used for landfilling or land application. And they are very stringent grading systems. As well, E-coli, MPN, Volatility, Alkalinity, etc ( you get the point ) are checked daily if not more depending on the solids handling portion of the plant.

Now with that being said, farmers should be using the water from irrigated lines that attach to specific potable water lines..... if they aren't, then that is another issue.

Also, I wouldn't be real concerned about the crops being irrigated with reused water because more than likely you are already drinking it in the first place. Most public systems are considered closed circuit systems. Wastewater is processed and treated at a wastewater plant, where it is discharged to stream, lake, river, etc. and then later collected for additional processing at the water plant, then discharged into the potable water system where people then consume it. Then the process starts over again.

I'm not one to buy in to government regulations and put trust in them but at least with this, I have first hand knowledge and can verify.