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WEST MILFORD - Microbes may be used to scour Greenwood Lake
(by David M. Zimmer - Staff Writer - October 22, 2008)
WEST MILFORD - In their search for cost-effective ways to clean up Greenwood Lake, the Greenwood Lake Commission is considering a microbial, non-toxic process that is designed to consume organic material and render pollutants harmless. The same microbial cleansing was first seen as a potential solution to the contamination in West Milford Lake.
During the Oct. 15 commission meeting, Global Ecology Corporation (GEC) Chairman Joseph Battiato said that his environmental restoration company is ready to act on a proposal to work with HumaClean, based in Palestine, Texas, to administer the treatment at each lake, at cost.
The companies are currently using the process to clean the largest lake in the southern United States, Lake Okeechobee in Florida, as well as Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain, the second largest continental salt lake, which was severely contaminated as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
Battiato explained that the three- to eight-week lake restoration process involves pouring a humus-based microbial product, called H-101, in the lake so it can settle down and begin eating the organic material on the lakebed.
Humus is primarily made up of plant residues, like lignin from cell walls, and other organic compounds that feed and strengthen microbes. Those microbes are then used to break down organic matter as well as neutralize many chemicals, trace metals and petroleum products.
The microbes, which thrive on currents, warm temperatures and sunlight, stay active for approximately 14 to 24 days, eating until they gorge themselves to death.
Battiato said reductions of 20 to 30 times the original volume of organic matter have been seen within six weeks in other applications, though up to 50 times is possible.
As was done in North Korea, acids would be added to the H-101 to reduce levels of deadly contaminants like Agent Orange, arsenic and lead to untraceable amounts, Battiato said. And while there is no traceable amount of Agent Orange in either lake, there are notably high amounts of arsenic and lead in both.
Battiato said the main concern in both lakes is the prevalence of those heavy metals. He said nitrates, like salts and even phosphates, are not at extraordinary levels and those compounds would become gaseous quickly as a result of the process, while the heavy metals would have to be “rendered harmless and left” on the lakebed.
In West Milford Lake, the process should take five to 10 treatments, involving multiple boats pumping and spraying water to circulate the humus-based H-101 when it is dumped into the lake, Battiato said. Pumps on the shores of the lake would then continue to aerate and circulate the water until the microbes can maintain proper aeration on their own.
HumaClean will monitor the progress of the microbes to see how much more of the H-101 needs to be added to fully reduce the silt and nullify any contaminants.
Since the 15.5-acre West Milford Lake has an average of 3 to 5 feet of silt, Battiato said each treatment would require 78 to 79 gallons of H-101.
At approximately $100 a gallon, Battiato expects the West Milford Lake project to cost anywhere from $50,000 to $75,000 depending on the volume and frequency that the H-101 needs to be added. However, he said that the company will complete the project for no profit and would only charge what the project costs.
With the future of the West Milford Lake Dam uncertain until at least mid-November, due to state Department of Environmental Protection and Dam Safety extensions filed on behalf of the property owner, GEC is considering the possibility of the dam ultimately being breached.
In that case, GEC would divert the flow from West Milford Lake into a retention basin where H-101 can be administered. This would clean the water before contaminants were allowed to flow into Greenwood Lake, Battiato said.
Fred Lubnow of Princeton Hydro said the effort should heavily document the composition of the lakebeds before the process is started to put the H-101 in areas with high levels of organic silt as opposed to sand. Areas with more than 60 percent sand and inorganic silt make the process much less effective, even though the H-101 can work through sand and other minute particles, Battiato said.
With the plan to perform the H-101 treatments on West Milford Lake first, the Greenwood Lake Commission would be able to see how the process works on a smaller scale. Moreover, Battiato agreed to perform a test on a small half-acre section of one of the boating channels on Greenwood Lake at no cost to the commission.
This would allow the commission to determine if it will be a cost-effective solution to the issues with silting and contamination in Greenwood Lake, which is especially likely in the southern end of the lake with higher levels of organic silt lying in more shallow waters.
Lubnow said that some states, like New York, are beginning to scrutinize microbial and bacterial process like this, so a detailed environmental impact study will likely be necessary to determine if this is permissible in the bi-state lake.
Battiato said GEC would also conduct an environmental impact study and obtain any necessary permits at no cost. Once awarded the contract for Greenwood Lake, he said GEC would immediately begin grant writing and soliciting funds from private as well as public sources at its own expense.
While their process has found a new application in water treatment, GEC and HumaClean work together mostly for soil mediation projects, turning contaminated soil and silt into nutrient-rich soil through a process called remediation.
The two companies have recently been working in California and Texas to rejuvenate farms and property values in an federal-approved process by making soil that Battiato said is 40 to 60 times more nutritious that commercially available topsoil.
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