Nitrogen Discharged

The NY Post is reporting today that the city will pay over $710 million over the next ten years to"upgrade sewage treatment plants that pump too much nitrogen into Long Island Sound and Jamaica Bay..." The city under this ruling plans to cut nitrogen discharge by 59%.

All of which got us to thinking about the issue of food waste disposers. One of the arguments used against these devices is that they exacerbate the nitrogen discharge problem. The scientific evidence tells a completely different story. The reality is that food waste mitigates the discharge problem. As professors Ham and Diggelman report; "Adding food waste to a carbon limited waste water system contributes to the net removal of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) from effluent..."

We're looking forward to having the facts come out and the incompetency of the DEP exposed once our food disposer pilot program is re-introduced next month.