16—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 14,1971
System Cleans Sewage, Irrigates, Fertilizes/ Renews Barren Land and Groundwater
The Living Filter'Recycling Study at Penn State Draws Wide Interest
Mounting public pressure to
keep the world’s cities from
dumping sewage into rivers and
lakes is finding its way to the
Pennsylvania State University,
where scientists have developed
a waste water recycling techni
que called The Living Filter.
Watershed association offi
cials, regional planners and con
sulting engineers have flocked
to University Park to see The
Living Filter in action Visitors
by the thousands have toured
the 75-acre facility, thousands
more have viewed a film docu
mentary on the project and
hundreds have sent written in
quiries
The Living Filter is an ex
periment, now in its ninth year,
designed to determine if im
purities in waste water can be
completely “filtered out’’ by the
-ancaster
Wenger Implement, Inc.
The Buck 2844141
Shotzberger's
Elm 665-2141
M. S. Yearsley & Sons A. B. C. Groff, Inc.
West Chester 696-2990 New Holland 354-4191
U/hot Hn l/nil Before you answer, Fred is Sales Manager for
if lUll UU yUU Standard Equipment. He and his sales force
have had the opportunity to serve today’s dairy-
UdlC Wllfll men Wlth man y applications of Standard’s
_ . complete line of equipment including silo un-
LPtn TDAPY loaders, bunk feeders, stalls and the new
mcu I ImU I “MASTER-BUILT” barn cleaner. Maybe he can
h it he| p y° u? Befor e your next
KIIOWS U I se write Fred to see
ie thinks. He has a lot
ideas.
Equipm
soil and at the same time used
to nourish crops and develop
green cover on barren lands.
At New Hampshire’s Lake
Sunapee the Living Filter con
cept is in action now in a new
sewage disposal system. Com
munities adjacent to other re
sort lakes are getting ready to
follow suit
Muskegon County, Mich, is
expected to have a waste water
irrigation system in operation
next year Chicago, not long
after. A Corps of Engineers
study for Cleveland-Akron, De
troit, and Boston-Providence
has sent consulting engineers to
Penn State to observe The Liv
ing Filter
Chicago’s “Prairie Plan” is
the most ambitious. Liquid
sludge from the world’s largest
sewage disposal system will be
John Deere 38 Forage
Harvester is unmatched.
any way you
size it up
Add up the facts that corn attachments
have exclusive rubber gathering belts
for plug-free feeding; that changing
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cutterhead boasts 6 spiraled knives; that
there's a built-in knife sharpener;
that re-cutter screens are available, and
you'll see why it's unmatched. See
us soon. Credit's available.
393-3906
ove
o
1 "- o>i;
This drawing shows how “The Liv
ing Filter” cleans waste water, while
providing essential food elements for
plants and livestock and replenishing
underground water. The Penn State ex
periment, now in its ninth year, proves
that treated waste water can be
barged 130 miles to rural Illi
nois and spread over farm and
strip-mined lands to create a
10,000 acre park and recreation
facility.'
Interest in the Penn State
project is world-wide; in the
past year alone, inquiries have
been received from the Baham
as, Barbados, Czechoslovakia,
England, France, Germany, In
dia, Israel, Italy, Malta, Poland,
Singapore, South Africa, Thai
land, Turkey, and West Pakis
tan All 50 states, Puerto Rico,
and all the provinces of Canada
have been heard from
What Penn State offers sew
age-weary communities is the
world’s most intensive research
program on waste water puri
fication
But the Penn State system
does more than purify waste
water. Sprayed on crops and
trees, treated sewage makes
them flourish. In this way, the
plants themselves clean some
of the water; they drain off its
impurities by using them to
grow. The rest of the effluent
percolates through the soil, is
cleaned by microbes it contains,
and goes on to replenish water
tables below
For eight years, winter and
summer, a team of scientists
from eight departments in four
colleges at Penn State has been
gathering data on farm and
*aSTE
WatE R
™,-" WATER NOURISH CF
f%>^ EXCESS I&&
SOIL -
IS CLEANED BY SOIL
sf;
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i
1 '
forest land. Operating under
the University’s Institute for
Research on Land and Water
Resources, they have collected
water samples, kept records of
weather conditions, monitored
the growth of trees and crops,
and checked neighboring
streams and groundwater sour
ces.
Two years ago, project scien
tists had an exciting idea. Since
The Living Filter rejuvenates
soil as it purifies water, maybe
it could he used on the worst
soil of all strip-mine spoil
banks. There are three million
acres of strip-mined spoil in the
n CQN£S^NSt
\^in e
MICROBES
RE WATER FLOWS
INTO WATER TABLE
SERVING WELLS AND.
MS
thoroughly degraded and its impurities
used to nourish Crops and put green
cover on barren lands. Water not ab
sorbed by crops and trees filters through
the soil and enters the water table “fit
to drink.”
Today’s cows are capable of high level production
often as much as 2,000 lbs. more milk per cow per year
than they are producing. PIONEER feeds and feeding
programs can help you get those extra tons of milk
from your cows. Challenge your herd. Feed the
PIONEER way . . . find out how good your herd
really is.
Stop in and see us. WE'LL help you develop an all
around management for profit program that will put
profit dollars in your pocket.
S ELMER M. SHREINER
Trading as Good’s Feed Mill
Specializing in DAIRY & HOG FEEDS
New Providence, Pa.
SINCE 1870
J***'
U.S., most of it as barren and
acidic as the day it was backfill
ed. A few dwarflike trees, plant
ed to meet state requirements,
are all that some spoil banks
contain.
In the unspiayed planters ab
solutely nothing has grown, not
even weeds.
But in the irrigated planters
a thick jungle of grasses and
legumes has sprung up, and
eight-inch tree seedlings are
now over five feet tall, and still
growing.
If a dense cover of grasses
can be made to take hold on
spoil banks, it would provide
(Continued on Page 17)
l idmZKtM-fyattS
MR. -OAIRYMANt
BUILD YOUR
T-FOR’PROFIT
RAM AROUND
NEER FEEDS...
Phone 786-2500