The technology, by the Canadian firm Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc., is being introduced Thursday. It also will help the York plant save about $90,000 a year, including lower operating costs and revenue from fertilizer sales.
For York, and other sewage plants nationwide, environmental rules are becoming ever stricter and more costly.
This is especially true in Southeastern Pennsylvania, where most streams are considered "impaired" for nutrients, said Jenifer Fields, water-program manager for the Department of Environmental Protection's office here.
So the double holy grail for plants is to eliminate as much waste from waste as possible, then turn it into a resource.
York's "new" source of phosphorus comes just as scientists are beginning to worry that the world is running out.
Phosphorus is mined mostly from five countries, including the United States, Morocco, and China, and it is finite.
Researchers are beginning to speak of "peak phosphorus" the same way they speak of "peak oil" - a time when the resource is so scarce it is no longer economically feasible to extract it.
Yet phosphorus runs rich in the veins that are the nation's waterways. Storm water flushes it from farm fields, and sewage pipes drain it from our homes and businesses.
Overall, excess nutrients, including phosphorus, are one of the main culprits in polluted waterways.
The nutrients cause excess algae growth, which consumes the oxygen that fish and other marine organisms need.
In the waste stream, phosphorous has been removed from laundry detergents and, most recently, from dishwasher detergents. But it is in the plants we eat, and thus the waste we excrete. Garbage disposals in sinks, which gobble leftover veggies and the like, also are a source of phosphorus.
