Project Title: Pilot Study for an Integrated Waste Treatment and Disposal System along the U.S.-Mexican Border: Ojinaga Community as a Prototype

Principal Investigator: John Mexal

Task Manager's affiliation: New Mexico State

Goal: This project is an initial study to yield data regarding the feasibility of an effective, low-technology waste treatment and disposal project design suitable for various small communities along the U.S.-Mexican border.

The full-scale design integrates waste treatment and disposal with simultaneous biomass production for energy and fiber. Using the border community of Ojinaga, Mexico, as a test case, local municipal wastewater and currently under-utilized irrigation water is applied to areas planted with fast growing woody crops like Eucalyptus. The result improved the quality of water discharged to the Rio Grande and enhanced growth of the biomass species. For this study, existing four- and five-year-old test plots of Eucalyptus are used as sites for wastewater applications. Monitoring systems provided data regarding quality improvement of the discharge water. Field plot measurements over a growing season detected any biomass yield improvement due to the irrigation with the enriched wastewater. Survival of the three species was excellent, averaging 99% for Eucalyptus, 97% for Robinia, and 93% for the Populus cuttings. The dried sludge from the old lagoon contains 35% calcium carbonate, and only 8% organic matter. It is neither beneficial as a fertilizer nor hazardous from heavy metal contamination. Small communities can use this technique to reduce or eliminate contamination of waterways. In addition, this approach has the potential to generate a substantial revenue stream for the sale of the biomass.

Outreach efforts for this project include a 2-3 day exposition event targeting border community members and representatives from U.S. and Mexican agencies; the creation of a bilingual video detailing the wastewater contamination problem and demonstrating the solution offered by the pilot system used in Ojinaga; and the creation of a bilingual website providing information on the system.

Project is ongoing. Activities for this project cover a 36-month period (September 1996 through September 1999).

Last updated 5/6/99