Yes well - the Rosedale treatment plant (Auckland North Shore) and Bromley have all recently changed the operating regime of their ponds by reducing the load on them. The Manukau treatment plant has abandoned ponds altogether. The reduction of the biological load at all three is now done not using algae. The algae production capacity left in the remaining ponds is much reduced. Why did they do this? Several reasons - the ponds are very hard to control - the raw materials including industrial effluent is too variable, and the algae are prone to fungal attack and outbreaks of grazing by other organisms. Overproduce and you can get toxic blooms and certainly algal die off. The consequence is occasional periods of foul odour from the ponds. Throw in that you can get midge outbreaks and that ponds do not produce sufficient reduction in nitrogen in their effluent.Anyone who has had anything to do with sewage treatment by oxidation ponds would treat the claims now being made very sceptically.
This is a brilliant example of kiwi innovation and collaboration which highlights the potential of our green industry. We are lucky to have this level of talent here in Aotearoa. Respect.
Maybe all this hype about global warming is about to be busted wide open.... A lying scientist (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6425269/The-real-climate-change-catastrophe.html) Mr Phil Jones has had his emails hacked and has been caught with his pants down, references to changing temperature data so that IPCC reports look catastrophic!. more soon! (http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/19/breaking-news-story-hadley-cru-has-apparently-been-hacked-hundreds-of-files-released/)