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MERRITT HERALD FREE
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2015 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
RED-LETTER DAY Interior Savings Credit Union’s Cynthia Gullason (left) and Diane Twan were in the red Friday for Merritt’s Dress Red for Heart and Stroke event. Interior Savings was one of seven local businesses that participated in the event this year, which sees people and workplaces decked out in Heart and Stroke’s signature colour to raise money and spread awareness for the non-profit organization and a heart-healthy lifestyle. The credit union’s theme was Little Red Riding Hood, and heart disease took on the role of the Big Bad Wolf. On judging day, employees held a heart-healthy potluck, promoted a donation tree with clients, and began their day with laughing yoga. Staff members also competed in an obstacle course to promote active living. For more photos from Dress Red, turn to page 3. Emily Wessel/Herald
Composting biosolids best option: city, Good Earth By Emily Wessel THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
The owners of the Sunshine Valley Good Earth Company are standing up for their company, their compost and their partnership with the City of Merritt as city council fine-tunes its official stance on the biosolids issue in the Nicola Valley. John and Kate Anderson started the Good
Earth Company in 2007 in response to then-council’s dilemma in dealing with the leftover materials from the city’s wastewater treatment process. Only treated Class A biosolids from the City of Merritt are treated at the Good Earth Company’s state-of-the-art composting site on Airport Road. The company receives between 1,700 and 2,000 tonnes of biosolids a year.
On days Good Earth receives the biosolids, they’re mixed in a bin with about two-thirds wood fibre, water, and Tim Hortons coffee grounds, and then the mixture is heated between 55 and 75 degrees C. After about two weeks, the mixture is turned and flipped into a new bin, where it stays for another several weeks. This aerobic process
forces oxygen through the bins as microbes (singlecelled organisms) break down the material. “It’s the oxygen levels that provide the perfect environment for the microorganisms to flourish and process the materials,” Kate Anderson told council at the committee of the whole meeting on Feb. 10. After a few more weeks, the mixture gets moved into windrows, where it contin-
ues to cure and compost. The entire process of turning Merritt’s biosolids into compost takes about a year. By the time the process is done, the chemical makeup of the compost is virtually unrecognizable as biosolids, John said. Twice a year, the Andersons take 10 samples from different spots in their compost pile to send to labs in Calgary and Ottawa, which
test for fecal coliform and lead content. The results consistently come back well under the provincial regulation for Class A compost, John said, with 12 per cent of the allowable lead content under Class A compost regulations, and 10 parts per million for fecal coliform, which is allowed up to 1,000.
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