Document text
Environment
t left is Dr* R.C. "Bill” Wolverton, a
/ I V ‘i member of the Space Technology
1 Hall of Fame and perhaps the
K , world s leading pioneer in utilizing
plants and microorganisms to solve air and
water pollution problems*
Wolverton, a retired NASA
researcher who served 18 years at Stennis
Space Center, (SSC), recently formed his
own company* — Wolverton Environmental
Services, Inc* (WES, Inch Picayune,
Mississippi — * to provide technology and
consultation in such areas as indoor air pol-
lution abatement; domestic/ industrial waste-
water treatment; and aquaculture, the use of
aquatic plants to remove pollutants from
wastewater at relatively low cost.
At right is part of Wolverton *s
Picayune home that is actually a laboratory
for one of WES, In c/s research programs* It
is the first combined indoor wastewater treat-
ment/air purification system employing
common house plants*
The plants absorb potentially harm-
ful gases and chemical compounds to purify
home or office air and water. Wastewater is
pumped from the bathroom and fumes From
the kitchen into a living room filtration sys-
tem of plants — ferns, ficus and
philodendrons — reinforced by
activated carbon filters* The waste-
water is used as water fertilizer for
the plants, which purify the indoor
air and at the same time convert
the wastewater to clean water. The
syste in , ope ra tional forth ree ye a rs ,
has demonstrated the practicability
of this concept. WES, Inc* has
licensed several companies to man-
ufacture and market high efficien-
cy indoor ai r fi I teri ng de vie es .
The first public building to use the
technology is a new math and science com-
plex at Northeast Mississippi Community
College (Booneville), The design of
Wo lver ton’s Booneville plant filtration sysr
tern calls for routing ventilation air through
a two-story atrium equipped with filter boxes
of plants, clay and charcoal* The plants puri-
fy the air and additionally cleanse sewage
from the building's bathrooms, recycling the
water for use on campus gardens*
Wolverton and his aides at SSC's
E n vi r o n m e n ta i Resea rc 1 1 La lx > ra tory (ERL. )
began experimenting almost two decades
ago on ways to cleanse, detoxify and reuse
over and over the initial supplies of water
and oxygen to be carried by hi lure long
duration spacecraft. In 1974, the ERL start-
ed investigations of aquaculture, with initial
focus on the water hyacinth, which can
absorb astonishing amoun ts of pollutants.
After successful demonstrations at SSC, a
large number of communities adopted aqua-
culture for either primary or supplementary
wa s te wa te r treatment*
Since water hyacinth applications
are confined to warm weather areas,
W o 1 ve rto n * s g ro ti p d e ve loped a se c o 1 1 d
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g e n e r a t i o 1 1 col d-to lerant u ar ti fi c i al m a rs h w
system employing a combination of pollu-
tant absorbing plants and sewage-digesting
microbes. More than 100 U.S* communi-
ties have since adopted the artificial
marsh technology*
WES, Inc., has continued research
and application of aquatic plant/microbial
wastewater treatment systems started at SSC.
WES, Inc* systems are in operation in a num-
ber of U*S. towns, particularly in Mississippi
and Louisiana, Wolverton also offers
designs for treating industrial wastewater in
facilities ranging from poultry processing to
chemical manufacturing plants. The first
chemical company to adopt aquatic/ micro-
bial technology as part of its wastewater
treatment process is Degussa Corporation,
Theodore, Alabama.
A new application is treating water
for fish farming; because of the tremendous
amount of water needed for intensive fish
culture, WES, Inc. is working with fish farm-
ers on applying aquatic plant/ microbial fil-
ters to treat and recycle their water.
There are about 100*000 acres of
catfish ponds in Mississippi. Certain forms
of nitrogen become toxic to catfish, partic-
ularly in intensively slocked ponds. There
is a further problem in that noxious efflu-
ent from the catfish ponds pollutes rivers
feeding into the Gulf of Mexico, a major
concern of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA).
Artificial marsh technology is
being evaluated as a purification system
at the catfish farm of Truman Roberts in
Purvis, Mississippi by the University of
Southern Mississippi (USM) * working
under a grant from the Gulf of Mexico
Program with technical assistance by
USDA's Soil Conservation Service*
At the Roberts farm, a one-acre
wetland filter cleans water from ihe catfish
production pond, removes toxic nutrients
and recycles the water back to the produc-
tion pond. Al left above, water from the
Roberts catfish pond is flowing into the
filter pond for cleansing; at right above the
cleaned water is being sprayed back to the
catfish pond* Initial evaluations by USM
biologists indicate that the artificial marsh is
effectively improving water quality and
removing toxic substances* Bonuses include
the farmer’s ability to increase stocking rates
per acre, creation of wildlife habitat, and
c l ea n e r d i s c h a r ge s i n to 1 oc a 1 wate rway s t h at
feed into the Gulf of Mexico. #
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