Lawrence,
I had a 30-minute conversation with Ed Kroeker (director, Vice-President, and THE TTRIF engineering guy) this afternoon and came away very impressed. We covered many areas that you and I (and shoe) have discussed recently:
<Is this your statement..."The TRUTH is... the end product, agricultural fertilizer, WILL CONTAIN HEAVY METALS.">
Ed verified the above statement is true. In fact, heavy metals are found in naturally occurring trace amounts in just about all vegetation and wildlife, including humans :-), on this planet.
<If so can you or did TT provide empirical data verifying the metals content?>
Apparently, the fertilizer's metals content depends too much on the incoming sludge. Of course, each TMP sludge plant will keep detailed production records of metals content percentages.
O.K. class, there are two classes of sludge- class A and class B. To be classified as class A, the sludge has to have 1)absolutely no pathogens present AND 2)heavy metals levels below the ceiling mandated by 40 CFR Part 503 (EPA Standards for the Use or Disposal of Sewage Sludge).
If either of the above conditions can't be met, the sludge is "kicked down" to class B (talk about an inferiority complex).
TTRIF sludge plants will receive nothing but class B sludge (i.e. none of it will be pathogen free, yet). But guess what? By the time it leaves, all warm and pelletized, it will be able to be certified CLASS A SLUDGE!
In fact, Ed flatly stated "THE OUTPUT FROM ALL PLANTS WILL HAVE HEAVY METALS CONTENT BELOW THE LIMITS THAT THE THE EPA SET UNDER CFR 503 AND LOWER THAN CANADA'S HEAVY METALS STANDARDS."
Frankly, this was all I needed to hear!
As you may recall in my previous post, a group of state fertilizer regulators, on 3-13-98, voted unanimously to recommend adopting Canada's tougher fertilizer standards. (It bears repeating that Canada's limits for heavy metals is 10 to 90 TIMES LOWER than the US limits for metals in municipal sludge. There are no limits to metals in US Fertilizers.) As per Mr. Kroeker, we already meet this potential FUTURE STANDARD!
<It's been discussed here often. It is my contention that heavy metals can be screened out (note: not "diluted").>
I specifically asked Ed about screening. He knew of no technology now available to allow screening of heavy metals. The problem is, the heavy metals are "trapped in the biosolids" and can't be separated using conventional filtering methods.
Interestingly, he also mentioned that TTRIF has acquired a fertilizer treatment technology whereby chemicals "sequester the heavy metals so that they aren't soluble in soil" (i.e. plants can't take in).
Here's the BEST part of the conversation, however (I made you guys
wade through the more esoteric stuff to get to the sizzle)...
Ed said it looks like Thermo Agri has arrived (see SI # 3847/Yahoo #3793)! He said WE WON THE CHINO VALLEY DEAL (enough waste for FIVE 600 TPD TMPs) AND THAT FINANCING HAD BEEN SECURED! (I thought the Chino, CA group wasn't supposed to visit until April 15-16th.) Note- he didn't said contracts were signed...maybe that's the purpose of their visit!
Don't ANY of you buy the stock tomorrow on the basis of a "done deal in Chino Valley"! IT'S NOT A DONE DEAL UNTIL THE NAMES ARE ON THE DOTTED LINE!
In the words of the immortal Bonnie Raitt, "Let's give 'em something to talk about...".
Regards,
David Pickering
P.S. I told Ed to warn Dan Cumming (VP of R&D) that I would be calling soon to get a progress report on Thermo Enzyme! |
