SEWAGE TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY VERSUS REGION OF WATERLOO

Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "UW-developed biosolids technology sets new standards". Apparently Lystek International Inc., a University of Waterloo commercial spinoff, are not taking the Region of Waterloo's decision lying down. The Region have decided that they are going with a biosolids heat drying process rather than the internationally recognized Lystek System.

Owen Ward is the writer of this article and founder a founder of the company (Lystek) and a co-founder of the process. In his article he goes into great lengths and specifics as to why the Lystek process is vastly superior to heat drying. Even on the face of it his process appears to avoid numerous problems that befall heat drying including fires, explosions and health effects on humans from dust and particle inhalation. Also on the face of it one would have to believe his process would save money and energy by not drying out the biosolids as the region's heat drying process does.

When I read between the lines I begin to wonder if this is merely one more master plan process that is biased from the very beginning. Mr. Ward while not throwing stones at the Region, nevertheless is clearly upset by a supposed process to determine the best solution to a problem, that fails to do so. It is also strange to me that a technology that is so well accepted internationally, including the U.S. EPA, is not deemed worthy by our own Region of Waterloo. Something appears to be amiss here.