NZ Land Treatment Col lect ive

NEWSLETTER

Dedicated to improving and communicating technology for the land treatment of waste products

Inside this issue:

Update from NZLTC Chair

Update from Technical Manager

1

2018 NZLTC Conference

2

2018 NZLTC Conference—Panel

Discussion

3

Spotlight on research 4

International land treatment

news

5

NZLTC Photo Competition

NZLTC Online

6

Greetings to all,

On behalf of the NZLTC Technical Committee Happy New Year to you all.

The organisation of the 2018 conference is operating under full steam

and we have a fantastic group of keynote speakers confirmed for the 7th

and 8th of March in Rotorua. The presentations begins with a focus on

climate change. Professor Iain White of University of Waikato will draw

upon his participation in the National Science Challenges to tell us what

climate change is and what it could mean for NZ. This is followed by a

presentation from Rob Bell of NIWA on how climate change is expected to

impact on land use in New Zealand.

The conference begins the following day with a session on a subject dear to the heart of many of

the LTC members, this being biosolids. Our invited International Speaker, Dr Sally Brown of

Washington State University, will update us on the latest developments in the recycling of biosolids

in the US.

Together with our other presenters we have a stimulating couple of days ahead of us and I look

forward to seeing you at the conference in Rotorua.

Grant

Update from NZLTC Chair — Grant Northcott

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N ewsl ett er Feb 20 18

https://nzltc.wordpress.com

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Update from the Technical Manager — Louise Weaver

Greetings to all,

This year’s NZLTC conference in Rotorua is shaping up to be an exciting

event. There are several important messages to note:

update your NZLTC membership to take advantage of the members

only conference registration rates

Early bird registration closes on the 16th Feb

If you have been accepted as an oral presenter please submit your

full paper by the 14th Feb to nzltc@esr.cri.nz

If you have any conference related questions please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. We

look forward to seeing you all in Rotorua in early March.

Louise

Looking back on previous years there have been some great

NZLTC conferences and this year will be no exception.

Our venue is the Rotorua Energy Event Centre and this year’s

conference theme is:

“Benefits and risks of land treatment”

We are fortunate enough to have national and international

keynote speakers including:

Professor Iain White (University of Waikato) - What

is climate change?

Dr Rob Bell (NIWA) Impact of Climate Change on

land use

Research Associate Professor Sally Brown

(University of Washington) International speaker,

Biosolid management

The conference will also include a expert panel discussion on

the key challenges facing the waste sector in the next 10—20

years.

2018 NZLTC Conference—Rotoura, 7-9th March

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AVAILABLE SPONSORSHIPS

GOLD Sponsor $4,500

SILVER Sponsor $2,500

BRONZE Sponsor $1,000

Conference dinner $2,000

Lunch break $1000 each (x2 available)

Tea break $750 each (x2 available)

Trade exhibition $500 each

MEMBERSHIPS TO NZLTC ARE NOW DUE

AND NEED TO BE PAID PRIOR TO THE

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION TO BENEFIT

FROM MEMBER PRICING.

Christchurch 2017 Wanaka 2015 Hamilton 2014 Gisborne 2016

SOCIAL EVENT

Opportunities to network and socialise will be

available with a social event on Wednesday 7th

March at the LONE STAR. The event will include a

pub quiz (Quiz Master: Rob Potts) and nibbles

throughout the evening.

CONFERENCE DINNER

The conference dinner will be held at the

Novotel Rotorua Lakeside Hotel on

Thursday 8th March with an international

dinner speaker Dr Chuck Henry ‘World

toilets: realities and opportunities’

FIELDTRIP

A field trip to relevant land treatment locations around Rotorua

will be held on Friday 9th March. Some of the fieldtrip sites

include:

Rotorua OSET testing facility

Hauraki catchment to see P removal project

Ohau diversion wall

Tikitapu / Blue Lake, introduction to PC 10 land

management rules to control nutrient discharges to land

Tarawera landing, sewage reticulation and the impact of

7 contributing lakes and their land use

Important dates

Registrations opened 18th Jan 2018

Full papers due 14th Feb 2018

Early bird registration due 16th Feb 2018

Conference presentations 7-8th Mar 2018

Conference fieldtrip 9th Mar 2018

“Future land treatment challenges for New Zealand”

The world is changing around us and how we manage wastewater is also evolving. Many factors,

including climate change, are contributing to the need to consider alternatives or enhanced practices

for managing our wastes.

What do we need to know as a sector? How can we be prepared to best mitigate potential

consequences of climate change, population growth, urban sprawl, changing market requirements?

During the conference we will be running a workshop to consider the:

Potential impacts of climate change on land use?

Consequence of changing land use, including greater urban development?

How is land availability for waste management being impacted by changing land use?

How is perception and market access influencing how we apply waste to land?

As we get busy, can we trust people to do their own thing or do we simply charge people to have

someone independently manage our wastes?

What questions do we not have answers to that research and good science could address?

Panel Discussion Thursday 8th March, 1:00—2:15pm

2018 NZLTC Conference—Workshop

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Spotlight on Research

4

Mānuka and kānuka for the land-treatment of municipal wastewater

Recently, the CIBR team at LEI, ESR, University of Canterbury, and Northcott Research Associates, have obtained funds from

Horowhenua District Council (HDC) and the Ministry for Environment Freshwater Improvement Fund to carry out an exciting real scale

project for applying Treated Municipal Wastewater (TMW) in a mānuka and kānuka dominated ecosystem, and to reduce the impacts

on the previous land-application system on the Waiwiri Stream.

Levin

Waiwir i S tream

5 km

Water quality in the Waiwiri catchment is mainly impacted by

pastoral land use, the quality of water released from Lake

Papatongia, and land discharge of TMW from “The Pot”. “The Pot”

is the local name of a 7 ha pond where wastewater from the Levin

Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) is stored prior to being spray

irrigated onto 40 ha of exotic pines. Nutrients from the Pot and the

land-application of the TMW into pine plantations, enter the Waiwiri

stream via drains and subsurface flows. This, along with a nutrient

load from elsewhere in the catchment, is contributing nutrients to

the Waiwiri Steam and exacerbating the loss of biodiversity on the

Horowhenua coast near the stream outflow.

The resource consent for the irrigation scheme at the Pot requires

renewal and this offers the opportunity to revise the design of the

original irrigation scheme, with input from key stakeholders

including Iwi, DOC, Regional and District Council. The revised design

has the scope to incorporate the most up to date irrigation

technology, including utilising recent research discoveries on the

abilities of mānuka/kānuka native ecosystems to provide enhanced

treatment of wastewater contaminants.

Figure 2: Baseline monitoring by the ESR Team

Figure 1: Waiwiri Stream location.

Research by ESR/Lincoln University has demonstrated that the root

systems of mānuka/kānuka have unique properties that do more

than just filter pollutants; they actively inhibit nitrification and

enhance the die-off of pathogenic bacteria.

In this project, we will replace 10 ha of pine forest with native

ecosystems comprising 40-60% mānuka and kānuka.

This project poses a great opportunity to investigate the benefits

that can be derived from the first full scale application of TMW on

NZ native vegetation in the country. The applied research

component of this project is twofold, firstly we will provide validation

of the benefits of mānuka/kānuka-dominated ecosystems to

enhance the land treatment of land applied wastewater in an

operational environment. Secondly, we will collate information on

the accumulation, fate and effects of emerging organic

contaminants in wastewater applied to land. This is a knowledge

gap for both councils and community and HDC have been asked to

provide key stakeholders with information on the impacts of EOC’s

in the treated and irrigated wastewater within the local

environment.

Globally, there is limited information on the effects of indigenous

vegetation on nutrient and emerging organic contaminant removal

from treated wastewater and no information on using plants to

attenuate pathogens in biowastes. New knowledge obtained from

this project on the effects of native plant systems to mitigate

emerging organic contaminants and pathogens in treated human

wastewater will make a significant contribution to national and

international research in the field of land treatment of biowaste.

For more information please contact:

Maria Gutierrez-Gines

International Land Treatment News

5

Biosolids: Growing opportunity while tackling climate change

Hello LTC colleagues!

While you are soaking up your summer

sunshine with your droughts and heat waves,

we are drowning in the depths of a wet winter in

Vancouver. Every year we see some fingerprint

of what we suspect is climate change – induced

weather patterns. Whether it is drought,

or incredibly powerful storms, more snow

than usual, or a fierce wildfire season, the

evidence grows in support of the

hypothesis that we are having a profound influence on our planet’s

climate.

With New Zealand having recently provided its seventh

communication in regards to progress towards climate change

commitments, and Canada’s government having instituted an

escalating carbon value (to be either taxed or used in cap and

trade), perhaps this is a good time to share with you one of the

projects that I am most excited about since we started toying with

the concept of how we might be able to use residuals to mitigate

climate change. A recent paper co-authored by another LTC alumni,

Nanthi Bolan, supports this important premise – biosolids, and

likely other organic residuals used in land treatment, can alter soil

carbon.

The project I share with you today is found on the outskirts of

Calgary Alberta. It started as a demonstration project and has since

developed into one of Calgary’s three main mechanisms for

managing biosolids. The premise at the outset was simple: use

biosolids to fertilize a rapidly growing short rotation woody crop

(biomass willow) in order to produce a feedstock for a newly

constructed municipal greenwaste, organics and biosolids

composting facility.

This is the kind of project that I love, because it creates a feedback

loop. Biosolids applied to the willow plantation forms one system of

beneficial use, however the feedstock that is grown from that soil

enrichment directly improves the city’s ability to manage more

biosolids through its composting facility by providing much needed

woody biomass for composting. For those of you not familiar with

Calgary, there isn’t a lot of forestry or woodlands in the surrounding

area, so the feedstock is of considerable value.

Figure 1: An aerial view of approximately 40 ha of the 350 ha willow plantation.

The project specifically identified and chose marginal

agricultural lands with poor productivity. The

combination of willow (which is a coppice species,

growing back from its root stool when cut back) and

biosolids enables this system to act as a productive

fallow plantation, enriching and resting marginal

agricultural soils, restoring productivity over the lifetime

of the willows. Willows are harvested every three years,

and biosolids amendments are applied after each

harvest. By the end of the 30 year lifespan of the

willows, the soil will be rich in nutrients and organic

matter.

The combination of willow rooting, leaf litter fall,

biosolids application, and fine root turnover results in a

lot of stable carbon inputs to the soil. Current

measured estimates after four years of willow growth

suggest that we are seeing up to 14 tonnes of CO2

equivalent carbon stored per hectare per year. That

carbon has a potential value of CAD $410 (NZD $448)

per ha per year. The willow plantation in Calgary is

approximately 350 ha in size, making it the largest

contiguous willow plantation in North America.

The willow plantation has introduced a woodland

ecosystem to the prairies. This has spawned new

habitat for deer, elk, songbirds, and rodents, which

have resulted in a stable habitat for predators,

including endangered species of owls and raptors.

The availability of consistent, high quality biomass

feedstock has opened up new avenues for

biotechnology research beyond compost feedstock. We

are currently investigating the potential to generate

everything from renewable natural gas (RNG) which can

be directly injected in to the gas network, to liquid

biofuels, to algae based organic and renewable

fertilizers from this amazing feedstock.

With all these attributes, the biosolids to biomass

project may, eventually, realize the ultimate

achievement in biosolids management – cost recovery.

That is still a long ways off, but we hope that the willows

can go the distance.

We are currently exploring other exciting avenues for the

organics/willows concept. I hope to be able to share the next

chapter with you soon. Have a great conference!

John Lavery

But this project is special. It is an onion that we can peel back. The

immediate utility of the feedstock was certainly a great start,

however, there are many more layers to this particular beneficial use:

Figure 2: Willow harvest uses a modified forage harvester and can achieve

several hectares per hour.

John Lavery (SYLVIS Canada:

j lavery @sy lv is .com)

You can follow NZLTC online via the following platforms: website, Twitter, LinkedIn

and Facebook. Updates will be posted regularly with links to our newsletter, relevant

land treatment research and news and conference updates.

NZ LTC Online

https://nzltc.wordpress.com/

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Keep sending us photos of you and your favourite land treatment

application. The winner will be announced at the NZLTC 2018 Conference.

Send to : nz l tc@esr.cr i .nz

NZLTC Photo Competition

NZLTC Technical Manager

Louise Weaver

louise.weaver@esr.cri.nz

nzltc@esr.cri.nz

NZLTC Finance and Administration Management

Robyn Chapple

robyn@lei.co.nz

NZLTC Communications

Bronwyn Humphries

bronwyn.humphries@esr.cri.nz

NZLTC Contacts

NZLTC Online

Next Newsletter…

The NZLTC Technical Committee will be

giving a progress update on the NZLTC

Strategy Objectives in the coming

newsletters:

Objective 1: Representation and advocacy

Objective 2: Member engagement and growth

Objective 3: Enhancing stakeholder relationships

Objective 4: Professional Development and Train-

ing

Objective 5: Support development of research for

sustainable waste