This week, host's Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich tell the fascinating story of the New York City Poop Train, which used to ship tons
of human waste sludge from New York City to farmers in Colorado, 1,600 miles away.
Human groundwater contamination can be related to
waste disposal (private sewage disposal systems, land disposal
of solid
waste, municipal wastewater, wastewater impoundments, land spreading
of sludge, brine disposal from the petroleum industry, mine
wastes, deep - well disposal
of liquid
wastes, animal feedlot
wastes, radioactive
wastes) or not directly related to
waste disposal (accidents, certain agricultural activities, mining, highway deicing, acid rain, improper well construction and maintenance, road salt).
«One example
of our field work is in Ghana, where we've been working with Engineers Without Borders, the student chapter at Columbia University, to design and implement novel toilets that can separate out the urine stream and the fecal
sludge stream from
human waste.