Biosolids!

So what are biosolids?

Biosolids are mostly organic solids resulting from the treatment of wastewater that have undergone additional treatment to kill pathogens and that have been approved by the EPA for land application as a fertilizer and soil amendment. It involves such nutrients as ni trogen and phosphorus and contain other micronutrients for plant growth. Opponents refer to this as treated sewage sludge or human waste.

Are biosolidssafe?

Answer: The National Academy of Sciences has reviewed current practices, public health concerns and regulator standards, and has concluded that "the use of these materials in the production of crops for human consumption when practiced in accordance with existing federal guidelines and regulations, presents negligible risk to the consumer, to crop production and to the environment. The Water Environment Association of Ontario produced a comprehensive report in 2001 which indicated that, at least in Ontario, the practices are sufficiently conservative and if followed properly show no significant risk to the environment or human health

Who regulates biosolids?

Answer: Biosolids are regulated at both the federal and state level. Biosolids must first meet several quality standards and regulations in order for them to be applied to land. These standards contain limits for metals that may exist in biosolids, site rules and regulations, pathogen standards, record keeping rules and soil monitoring requirements. 

Why do we have biosolids?

We have biosolids as a result of the wastewater treatment process. Wastewater treatment technology has made our fresh waters safer as sources of drinking water, for recreation and as fish habitats; it has also improved marine water quality for recreation and seafood harvesting. In the past, many hundreds of Canadian cities simply dumped their raw sewage directly into the nation's rivers, lakes, and bays - some still do, although this is being addressed through environmental and infrastructure programs. Through regulation of this dumping, municipalities are now required to treat wastewater and to make the decision whether to recycle biosolids as fertilizer, incinerate it, or bury it in a landfill.

Do biosolids affect water quality?

About 95% of the nitrogen in biosolids exists in an organic form that has a slow release rate, which makes it much less likely to run off into streams. 

Pros

•Creates jobs

• It is a cost effective method of

disposal

• Recycles versus filling landfills

• Promotes farming

• Reduces emissions from

transportation to landfills

• Good free fertilizer

•Land Reclamation

•It’s regulated according to EPA

law 503

Cons

• Potential health hazard

• Effects irreversible

• Contamination resulting from

accumulation of industrial waste

• Its true composition is unknown

• May contain hazardous

chemicals

• Possibly transferable to crops

• Decreases property value

•Not sufficiently regulated

•Odor

The stakeholders supporting the Biosolids Partnership believe in and seek the active participation by federal, provincial and territorial government departments and agencies since we have a common goal that residuals of wastewater services (whether municipal or industrial) represent an untapped environmental resource which can be managed to support our collective sustainable development objectives in a manner that protects public and environmental health and safety. The many potential uses for these biosolids residuals in current practice include: land application for agriculture and reforestation; mine tailing site reclamation, energy recovery, and compost production. Other uses such as cellulose-based ethanol production have not yet reached Canada or are at a bench scale stage, e.g. phosphorus recovery.

Among their benefits, the use of biosolids can:

• Improve crop production

• Reduce soil erosion and protect water quality

• Provide topsoil for recreational uses

• Reclaim strip-mined lands

• Enrich forestland

• Conserve landfill space

• Provide economic incentives 

What happens to Toronto Biosolids?
Toronto's biosolids are all treated at the Ashbridges Bay Treatment Plant (77%) and the Highland Creek Treatment Plant (the other 23%). Throughout the world, biosolids are returned to the environment in a variety of ways. Some methods require little or no processing, while others use sophisticated technology. Although the City continually pursues beneficial reuse options, we currently use a combination of methods to manage biosolids. The table below shows where our biosolids went in 2008:

2008 Biosolids Reuse/Disposal Methods

Management	Percentage
Landfill	41%
Incineration at Highland Creek	23%
Land Application	11%
Pelletization	16%
Alkaline Stabilization	5%
Site Remediation	4%

Students who are undecided or against biosolids are concerned about the long-term effects and want to see more research on the subject. Students who support biosolids believe that if it is applied properly, biosolids are a viable alternative for fertilizers and good way to recycle.

Sources:

http://www.cwwa.ca/cbp-pcb/pdf%20files/EPPC%20Proposal1.pdf

http://www.toronto.ca/water/biosolids/index.htm

http://www.biosolids.com/benefits.html

http://www.cwwa.ca/faqbiosolids_e.asp

Artificial Selection

What is Artificial Selection?

Artificial selection is the process of changing the characteristics of animals by artificial aspects. For example, animal breeders, are often able to change the characteristics of domestic animals for reproduction. These characteristics basically improve plants and animals in ways that not all could grow up to be like. For instance, plants are more disease-resistant, cows produce more milk, and racehorses run faster. Over the years, the plants with desirable characteristics are grown by man and their numbers increase. Meanwhile, plants without these characteristics are less likely to survive as they are not provided with the fertilisers and pesticides by man. Eventually, the species of the plant will evolve.

Supermarkets vs Fast Food

Normally people would say McDonald's or any other big fast food restaurant has fake ingredients, but vegetables and fruits we buy in our local supermarkets are just as artificial. Most farmers give the plants many products to make them grow larger, grow faster and probably grow tastier.

Artificial Selection vs God

God created the earth for us and made all the plants and animals so that we could use properly and nourish them in the right way. Artificial selection depicts all the aspects of why god created the the world. Most things should be done like it was done many centuries of years ago. We could use the modern technology that we have today but we should use it to our advantage in the short and long run, not just the short run. Artificial selection would be present but in the future it created plant and animal side effects that are mostly negative.

Artificial Selection in Plants

Fast plants is a good example of artificial selection in plants. Fast Plants is a large group of plants that includes mustard, radish, cabbage, and more, that have been bred and selected to have a uniform, short flowering time (14 days) and grow well under in a small indoor space, with little soil, under artificial lights.

Artificial selection in Animals

The results of artificial selection are easy to see. The domestication cycle of dogs (canines) being bred by their owners in order to emphasize less-aggressive traits has gone on for thousands of years, and has resulted in hundreds of different breeds that look almost nothing like their grey wolf ancestors. Dairy cattle are bred in hopes of producing more milk, but some lines now suffer from increased infections and fertility problems. Persian cats that are bred for extremely flat faces often develop respiratory problems and may have trouble eating. All of the listed traits that are bred for do not help the animals survive in the wild, but do make them more desirable to their owners.

Hybrid Plants and Artificial Selection

Plant breeders, too, commonly start with variable hybrid plants and then apply selection to produce new crops, trees, and flowers with desirable properties. In plants, a hybrid is a plant that is created by cross-pollinating specific plants. Hybrid breeders are looking to improve certain aspects of a plant. This could be to increase the yield, create disease-resistant varieties, better uniformity of plant and fruit size and even color. Although you can save seed from hybrid varieties, they don’t produce true copies of the original hybrid plant. For example, a rubber-producing plant from Mexico, guayule (Parthenium argentatum), was crossed with northern relatives to produce hybrid plants that could transfer cold tolerance to guayule (Asker and Jerling 1992: 249). A new variety of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) resistant to Yellow vein mosaic disease, the most serious disease of that plant, was developed by crossing A. esculentus with A. manihot (edible hibiscus). The modern strawberry is derived from hybridization of the Virginia strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) and the beach strawberry (F. chiloensis). Rockwell et al.

The Process

Artificial selection starts with the raw material found in nature. People find some animal, plant, or fungus that is in some way delicious or useful, and first simply use it as it is. Then if it is observed that some specimens are tastier or more useful they are kept and bred together (the key step is to figure out ways to breed them in captivity). Otherwise, the result of "natural" selection - as we keep eating the tastier ones or working to death the more useful ones - would be a selective pressure reducing the "delicious" gene in the wild population.

Contrast to Natural Selection

Natural selection is largely determined by environmental factors, for example, tigers developed stripes so that they could sneak up on their prey easier. The first stripy tigers caught more prey, and were healthier so produced more offspring.

Artificial selection is controlled by humans, for example, pug dogs have pug faces because people bred male dogs with pug-ish faces and female dogs with pug-ish faces to produce offspring with totally pug faces.

Obvious Examples

Bananas - these reproduce asexually only with the help of humans.

Broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, and collard greens - are all variations of the species Brassica oleracea and have been bred for their different appearances and flavours. In recent years, sprouts have been bred to have a much sweeter flavour in order to make them appeal more to children.

Corn - as bred for food, the plant cannot even produce viable seeds, and "seed corn" has to be specifically raised to produce "food corn".

Dogs - Dog breeds exhibit everything that artificial selection can achieve, taken to extremes in some cases. Most ancestored dogs have some genetic abnormality from in-breeding, and most breeds couldn't survive in the wild.

Cows - These are usually too stupid to live. They were bred from much less punishment.

Pros

• Produces uniform or predictable off spring.
  
• Hidden (recessive) genes show up and can be eliminated.
  
• Individuals will "breed true" and are "pure."
  
• Doubles up good genes.Eliminates unwanted traits.
  

Cons

• Doubles up on faults and weaknesses.
  
• Progressive loss of vigor and immune response.
  
• Increased reproductive failures, fewer offspring.
  
• Emphasis on appearance means accidental loss of "good" genes for other attributes.
  
• Genetically impoverished individuals.
  

Personal Opinion

In my perspective, humans should only use artificial selection on animals but only to a certain point-personal animals. I think that we are taking away what God has created for us on earth and our misusing it if we move forward with artificial selection. Dog breeders should only breed their dogs for characteristics that they want. I say this because using artificial selection on plants is worldwide and affects everyone. For example, if a farmer used artificial selection on a crop of vegetables, then sold a bulk amount of vegetables to a super market, customers at the supermarket will buy the artificially selected vegetables and will probably wonder why the vegetable is larger or more colourful than an ordinary one. Many people might not like this and using artificial selection will not satisfy the whole population, natural selection will keep everything normal so people will not complain. Animals, on the other hand, is different due to the fact that people will breed their own personal dogs. This will not affect the whole population therefore it will satisfy everyone. Thus, people should use artificial selection only with their personal living things.

Watch this insightful artificial selection video! : http://www.blogger.com/goog_1232028289

List of Works Cited

http://www.macroevolution.net/hybrid-plants.html

http://rationalwiki.com/wiki

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_30

http://www.fastplants.org/intro.php