Snails & Sewers

Positive results from chemical-free, natural waste treatment process

by Alan AtKisson

One of the articles in Caring For Families (IC#21)
Spring 1989, Page 9
Copyright (c)1989, 1997 by Context Institute | To order this issue ...

Ocean Arks International, a non-profit research organization led by ecodesigner John Todd, has developed an experimental treatment facility that uses snails, fish, flowers and young trees as part of a chemical-free, natural treatment process to clean septic tank waste. The resulting water has been tested for 14 cancer-causing compounds: 13 were 100% removed, and the last (toluene) was 99.9% removed.

Ocean Arks has also built a sewage treatment facility using snails, shrimp, bacteria and plants to remove sludge and transform raw sewage into pure water, and they are designing a similar system for industrial waste in Providence, RI.

To learn more about their pioneering work, or to receive their excellent publication Annals of Earth ($10 donation), write to One Locust St., Falmouth, MA 02540.

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