Good morning,

I am pleased to inform you that composting of organics, as well as human resources, has been accomplished in a variety of small to large contained vessels for decades.

As I stated earlier, Clivus Multrum, invented by Sweden's Mr. Richart Lindstrom back in the 1940's incorporated baffles and air channels in a fiberglass box with a sloping floor, which is still being sold worldwide today. His initial design was good but the air channels obstructed the composting mass to settle effectively and the sloping floor idea for glacial removal does not work very well.

My design, which I also copied from large solid organic waste composters, utilizes baffles on both ends and a false floor perforated sheet of plastic, 1/4" thick suspended off the floor by at least 6" for the air to be forced, or naturally vented with the chimney effect with a large vent, to provide the needed oxygen to the aerobic organisms and redworms. In my automated version, I have added agitators on the top of the composting mass to stir the fresh resources and spread them out evenly without a pile growing. I also add pine bedding as the carbon source to add air space in the pile of feces pudding for added ventilation.

My end result, because I feed from the top and remove from the bottom is pure rich black soil with absolutely no odor and millions of redworms.

Clint

Dear all,

I feel the need to give you a bit of history as to why my written comments may seem to be a bit on the controversial side concerning my personal experiences, observations and conclusions of governmental regulators, academics, licensed professionals and organized teams participating in the conventional wastewater treatment industry.

The following are just a few examples of the historical resistance from those entities to the life sustaining accomplishments made by the Human Endeavors’ Foundation.

While constructing geodesic domes in Winter Park, Colorado, in the early 1970's, I had absolutely no knowledge of the toilet business, but soon became aware of the difficulties of installing septic systems.

I read an article in Organic Gardening and Farming about the curious invention and operation of the Clivus Multrum composting toilet and Abby Rockefeller’s purchase of the North American distribution rights.
I became fascinated with the potential of reducing water consumption, pollution and producing a positive product. I quickly became a distributor by purchasing and installing my first system to use and learn.

The hippie generation was attempting to make a 'green' difference and I sold and installed systems in the West for 12 years. Hippies actually had very little money, so when my sister and brother-in-law sent me a one-way airplane ticket to Healy in Alaska's Interior, I joined them.

The geodesic dome knowledge kept me afloat, but I was offered another job in 1983, that of installing a couple of Multrums for the US Army National Guard in Selawik and another at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage.

The Guard was impressed with my work and knowledge and asked me to design and manufacture my own composter in 1984. From that contract, I manufactured and installed over 50 of my large composting tanks in remote Eskimo village US Army National Guard armories from Point Hope to Dillingham.

Because my systems worked, the native communities accepted me well; I became a contractor for NANA (North American Native Association) in Kotzebue and worked with them installing my systems in their headquarters and at their spirit camp, Sivinivik.

Sivinivik was the only remote location where the elders could teach their youth their own native customs and their own language without being threatened by the new educational system forcing them to abandon their language to speak English. I felt very honored to be accepted by them and allowed to install my technologies.

My proven systems had received a 1988 US Department of Energy National Award for "Energy Innovations" for the sustainable green geodesic dome I had designed and constructed. It contained my composting and greywater systems along with solar heating. By 1988, I had installed the most northerly ground source heat pump in the world, and for it, I received an Alaska Legislative Award for my Environmental Achievements.

The then Governor Walter Hickel provided me with a $15,000 contract to put one of my own entire systems in a native Eskimo’s home as a volunteer native Alaskan family. Lester and Grace Hadley with four children in Buckland, AK near Kotzebue offered but explained that if it did not work, I would no longer be welcome in their home.

It worked, they were delighted. NANA's native elders were impressed that a white person had finally come around to actually help them instead of use them.

I thought the ice had finally been broken until I read reports from the USPHS and ADEC that my system was not only malfunctioning but was also a public health threat.

Of course, the report was fictitious, but by eliminating my company, AlasCan as competition, and me it allowed the Corp of Engineers to drain another $5 million to study other applications on wastewater that would funnel even more funds to them when they did the job.

Today, Buckland, a community of 84 residences, one school, a store and a Town Hall is under construction with $50 million taxpayer dollars allotted for the installation of a piped system in Buckland that, like
the other remote village systems, has a failure rate of 95%. The
natives cannot afford to operate it.

Over $6 billion dollars of US taxpayer money has been spent at similar Alaska villages and 90% of that money is staying in the hands of those degreed, regulators, engineers and pipe manufacturers in Anchorage, Juneau and Seattle. (US Office of Technical Assessment, 1990's)

In 1995, when I moved back to my home state, Minnesota Rule 7080, had been written with the verbiage covering Individual Sewage Treatment Systems. This didn't interfere with my business; however, after several attempts to work with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
(MPCA) and their degreed soil scientists, 7080 was over time rewritten to now singularly and solely dictating Individual Subsurface Sewage Treatment Systems and as an end result, eliminate me, non-subsurface discharging systems, as competition.

MN Statute 462.357 states that the only wastewater technologies legally allowed (taxpayer-funded) are ONLY piped water/sewer and the restrictions provided by MN Rule 7080 for strictly sub-surface DISCHARGING/DISPOSAL SYSTEMS.

For the past ten years, submittals have been made to city engineers with the financial and environmental advantages of “Separation”
technologies only to have those cost estimates purposely distorted and rebuffed by those consulting engineers to the city councils while governmental protectionism is being provided by the taxpayer funded engineering oversight boards controlling/not disclosing any, including damaging evidence to the public without a court order.

Another water main break in downtown Minneapolis this morning should serve to promote the logic of my systems. As we, all know; the breaks we see now are just the tip of the deteriorating pipe system’s iceberg. In fact, wastewater treatment has always been maintained by those with vested interests in the status quo. Whether it is finances or job security influencing decisions, the concerns of the taxpayer and the environment always take second-place.

With over 45 years of attempting to work with the regulatory and academic/professional communities, having patents in hand, proof and accolades from newspaper articles, TV and the native people of Alaska, Human Endeavors’ knowledge and capabilities in addressing and improving human sanitation and environmental water quality is unmatched by any existing or even conceptualized centralized methodologies.

To Bill and Melinda Gates, the Zuckerbergs and all the rest of you who want to get something going instead of just reading about what if!
Stop analyzing and just do it with what we know and have proven to work! It is time to implement sustainable “Separation and Recycling”
technologies now!

Engage the Plan of Action; Go Fund Me.com/e8b9aj78

Clint

Note by moderator: More information about Clint's work is also available in these threads:

• forum.susana.org/forum/categories/40-gre...-constructed-wetland
• forum.susana.org/forum/categories/40-gre...nd-recycling-systems
• forum.susana.org/forum/categories/40-gre...er-for-total-recycle

+++++++++

Dear Forum Members,

We have utilized vermiculture in our composting tanks for over 40 years with tremendous success.

We utilize redworms and a very small white worm, which we acquired from sludge at the Fairbanks, AK sewage treatment plant.

If you are going to compost human toilet resources it is highly suggested that you add additional kitchen food scraps to dilute the composting mass. Also, you need to add the carbon source as we do with pine bedding.

If all pit latrines or any other location that people use to defecate just added the carbon source each time of use they would add a layer of air channels for the worms and the organisms. Then the resources can compost effectively with just the addition of oxygen.

Worms are the intestines of the universe and their function is to convert the resources to worm casings for fertilizer. The compost tea is extremely valuable and can be utilized directly on non-edible crops as liquid fertilizer.

Our vermiculture even worked in Alaska.

Decentralization, onsite utilizing composting tanks works with no need for water or infrastructure.

Clint