Communication_Gerhardt Van Drie_Disposal of SludgePage 1 of 2
Jeanne Schneider -email for mayor and city council
From: <GVanDrie@aol.com>
To: <jschneid@cityof dubuque.org>
Date: 04/21 /2008 11:49 AM
Subject: email for mayor and city council
CC: <GVanDrie@aol.com>
City Clerk J. Schneider: I sent this email to the city of Dubuque mayor and city council, but it did not go through.
Please forward this document to your mayor and city council for me. Many thanks for your courtesies. Gerhardt
Van Drie
Need a new ride? Check out the largest site for U.S. used car listings at AOL Autos.
Forwarded Message:
Subj: Sludge handling
Date: 4/19/2008 8:59:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: GVanDrie
To: rdbuol cityofdubuque.org;dresnick(a~cityofdubuque.org;kbraig aC~cityofdubuque.org;rjones cityofdubuque
CC: GVanDrie, Gvandrie1(a~cs.com, vandriea~uci.edu
BCC: TEGEA
The Honorable Mayor and City Council City of Dubuque Iowa;
Greetings.
The present methods for disposal of sludge from sewage treatments plants contaminates land, water and the
air. You are well aware of the pollution of the Mississippi River from land and water disposal methods. Your city
has polluted the air with use of incineration which polluted air can travel for 100's of miles. Chemicals presently
dumped in sewer lines endue in the air that people breathe from incineration.
Air pollution from China travels to parts of the US.
It is possible to avoid contamination of land, water, and air by use of the high volume Van Drie Trenching
Process. Trenches can be dug in appropriately chosen ground and immediately covered by the excavated soil.
This process will not be workable when sand dunes, or solid rock exists or where the water table is within 15
feet of the ground surface.
I made Jonathan Brown, the manager of your sewage treatment plant aware of this technology over a year ago,
but as I see now, he has not included this sludge disposal alternative in his recommendations to you.
It is very easy to load the dewatered sludge, presently fed to your incinerators, directly to trucks and hauled to
appropriate land nearby.
In the real world of wastewater treatment in which we live and operate, you will find that consulting engineers
and contractors make more money pouring as much concrete as possible. Inefficient technology keeps being
used. Others have commented that it may take as long as 20 years to get excellent innovation to be installed.
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Page 2 of 2
Many years ago when I started as public works director and city engineer for the city of Spencer, Iowa, I found
that in the wintertime when the sludge drying beds were filled up and frozen, that the crew would open the
valves of the full digesters and discharged liquid sludge to the Little Sioux River. I knew this was wrong to do,
so bought a tank truck for hauling liquid digested sludge to frozen corn stalk land. I carried on research work at
the Spencer plant that was used at a national conference by an engineer from the Iowa Department of Public
Health.
I earned a B.S. in natural sciences from the U. of D. in 3 years including teaching engineering drawing and
descriptive geometry to returning servicemen of WII during the 3rd year. I also have a civil engineering degree
from Iowa State U. and have also earned a masters from the graduate school of political science at Arizona
State U. while being chief inspector for the city of Phoenix.
What are you going to decided to do for the next 40 years for sewage treatment plant sludge disposal and how
much money are you going to blow? 100 acres of land at $40,000 per acre amounts to $ 4 million dollars.
After using all of the land, it can be used for some uses such as growing Christmas trees.
THE GOAL SHOULD BE NOT TO POLLUTE THE LAND, WATER AND AIR WITH HARMFUL ELEMENTS.
Gerhardt Van Drie, R.C.E.
Need a new ride? Check out the largest site for U.S. used car listings at AOL Autos.
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