Earth-friendly flushing."Loud, smelly, and unsightly." That's how Neil Harden describes traditional sewage-treatment plants. With the help of strong chemicals, these factories purify the water and waste you flush down Verb 1. flush down - flow freely; "The body washed down the river" wash down flush - flow freely; "The garbage flushed down the river" your toilet. But ask Harden about the sewage-treatment plant he operates at Corkscrew corkscrew a deformity in which the affected part is spiraled like a corkscrew. corkscrew claw a probably heritable defect of the lateral claw, usually of the front feet, of cattle causing serious lameness. Sanctuary in Florida, and he brags, "The only smell you can detect is the sweet fragrance of its flowers." Flowers? At a sewage-treatment plant? Yes! At Corkscrew, flowering plants plants which have stamens and pistils, and produce true seeds; phenogamous plants; - distinguished from See also: Flowering , trees, ferns, and other greenery "eat up" the nasty waste particles in the toilet water. As a result, the water is odorless o·dor·less adj. Having no odor. o  dor·less·ly adv.o and clean enough to be recycled back to the restrooms. Thousands of visitors flock to Corkscrew Sanctuary each year to marvel at one of Earth's last cypress-tree forests. Corkscrew recently needed a new sewage-treatment system to keep up with the visitors' frequent flushes. But the chemicals used by most sewage plants are toxic and could harm Corkscrew's delicate, wildlife-rich environment. In contrast, the "living machine" of plants at Corkscrew can harmlessly treat 10,000 gallons of wastewater a day. The water that swirls down the toilets enters a series of large canisters filled with wetland plants (see diagram, below). Immersed in water, the plant roots create a lush environment for algae algae (ăl`jē) [plural of Lat. alga=seaweed], a large and diverse group of primarily aquatic plantlike organisms. These organisms were previously classified as a primitive subkingdom of the plant kingdom, the thallophytes (plants that and bacteria. These microorganisms supply oxygen to the waste, turning it into food the plants can absorb. Flushing to feed flowers may seem too far-fetched to be practical. But since 1986, nearly a dozen sewage systems like the one at Corkscrew have sprouted successfully at sites around the country. Would you want one in your backyard? RELATED ARTICLE: Flush the toilet to feed the flowers! The Florida Corkscrew Sanctuary sewage-treatment system purifies wastewater without using toxic chemicals. Follow the steps in this diagram to see how greenery absorbs the waste particles in the water people flush down the Corkscrew restrooms toilets. 1. UNDERGROUND TANKS * Human waste and water flushed from toilets enters underground tanks. 2. PURIFYING PLANTS * Wastewater enters a series of canisters filled with trees, like cypress and red bay, that usually grow in swamps. * Bacteria and algae living in plant roots turn waste particles into plant food. 3. WASTE AWAY * Last canister returns any remaining waste to the underground tanks to be cycled through the system again for additional treatment. * Treated water and plant nutrients drain into human-made wetlands. 4. WASTE-EATING WETLANDS * Wetland plants like ferns, cattails, and swamp lilies absorb plant nutrients. 5. CLEAN AND CLEAR * Water leaving the wetlands is treated with chlorine to kill leftover bacteria. * Non-toxic sodium sulfite sodium sulfite n. A white crystalline or powdered compound, Na2SO3, used in preserving foods, silvering mirrors, developing photographs, and making dyes. is added to neutralize chlorine, leaving water pure and odorless. Water is recycled to toilets, fresh for the next flush. FAST FACT The only time worker at Corkscrew need to draw water from an outside source is when water evaporates from the wetlands of the wastewater-treatment system. Sludge, solid leftover human waste from treated toilet water, is loaded with nutrients essential for plant growth. In fact, 45 percent of U.S. sludge is used to fertilize crops. Each day, a large city like New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of creates enough sewage to fill more than 3,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. WINGS OVER WASTE * A screen covers the entire system to contain dozens of butterflies that thrive in the "garden." RELATED ARTICLE: EARTH EXPLORER Meet Marcia McNutt Marcia Kemper McNutt is an American geophysicist. She is currently president and C.E.O. of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, an oceanographic research center in the United States, and a professor of marine geophysics at the Stanford University School of Earth Sciences. , a geologist who studies earthquakes and mountain formation. Rock Revolution: When McNutt was in college during the early 1970s, the world of geology was rocked by "a scientific revolution"--the theory of plate tectonics plate tectonics, theory that unifies many of the features and characteristics of continental drift and seafloor spreading into a coherent model and has revolutionized geologists' understanding of continents, ocean basins, mountains, and earth history. . McNutt was fascinated. She became a geologist, or earth scientist, to learn more. Cracked Egg: The theory of plate tectonics says Earth's outermost out·er·most adj. Most distant from the center or inside; outmost. outermost Adjective furthest from the centre or middle Adj. 1. layer, the crust, looks like a cracked egg shell. Each piece of shell represents an enormous slab of rocky crust--a tectonic plate. These plates move extremely slowly over Earth's next layer, the mantle (see diagram). When two plats rub together, they sometimes cause earthquakes or buckle up to form mountains. Rumbling Mystery: Sometimes quakes shake in surprising places--like the region McNutt has studied between Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. and Salt Lake City. This region is all part of the same slab of crust--the North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. plate--so it should be quake-free. What could be causing the slab to shake? Slow Breakup? McNutt's explanation: Perhaps the North American plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Cherskiy Range in East Siberia. is slowly breaking apart. In a few million years the area may crack into two tectonic plates, splitting the United States in half with a new ocean in between! The Grean Outdoors: "The best thing about being a geologist is doing science outside," McNutt says. Sound like fun? You can get more info on careers in earth science by writing: U.S. Geological Survey Earth Science Information Center 507 National Center Reston, VA 20192 |
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