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County to replace falling septic systems. She added that evapo-transpiration beds avoid the cost of expensive piping, a major cost factor in conventional treatment systems.
“I think it would pay you to look carefully at spray irrigation,” she said, particularly if the land proposed for spraying is being used to raise crops. The aerated, partially treated effluent that is sprayed as the final step in treatment provides both moisture and organic fertilizer to crops, according to Agnew.
Higher Yield
The fields of a Michigan town where a land dispersal system is used yield well over 100 bushels of corn to the acre, she continued, a figure much higher than the 60 bushel per acre yield before spray irrigation. Com is a high nitrogen crop, said Agnew, and sewage is loaded with nitrogen. “You should consider .sewage as a resource because it really is.”
On the other hand, Agnew noted that the high nitrogen content in sewage effluent from the proposed lagoon facility would turn the Thornton River green with algae growth if the dillution factor wasn’t high enough during low flow periods.
Free Fertilizer
She again emphasized the benefits to be derived from land dispersal and spray irrigation as a source of free fertilizer and water. “Who’s to say how much longer Virginia will continue to be a water rich area?” Agnew asked. She noted that the county wouldn’t have to buy the fields for spraying freon a farmer but could instead lease them, with threefourths of the payment reimbursed by the federal government.
Rental costs bom by the county would be offset, she said, by savings in other areas, notably in the cost of electricity to run the aerator for the oxidation lagoon.
“Think this problem through before you commit your money,” Agnew advised. “In the meantime, don’t take no from the Water Control Board or the State Health Department because I don’t trust either one of them...
“A community has a right to defend itself,” she continued. “I can tell you that it’s coming. There’s a wall of people over there in Washington and they all want out and if you think you’re not going to get it, you’re wrong—so protect what you’ve got.”
A member of the audience noted that the people in Sperryville are “under orders to clean up. We can talk about spray irrigation of com but if the state won’t accept it...”
Elizabeth Horvath responded that she understood that a land dispersal
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