Dr. Keithe Bolton
We’ve previously covered how hemp can be used to treat sewage, and how an Australian researcher, Dr. Keith Bolton, was testing it’s full potential as a mop-up crop. Well, it appears that the good Dr. Bolton is at it again. As the Northern Rivers Echo reports, Dr. Bolton has recently used his research to help an Australian aboriginal community whose sewage treatment facilities have fallen into disrepair:
With a love of travel and a secondary business behind him of importing hemp products such as hemp seed oil, it was natural that Dr Bolton’s next project should involve research into growing and irrigating hemp with effluent.
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“Half a million litres of poorly treated effluent were being released into the local creek at Bangalow causing ecological damage,” Dr Bolton said. “I suggested that the alternative was a land application of effluent where we grow and irrigate crops with it.”Dr Bolton then trialled crops of hemp, bamboo and kenaf on the land. While hemp produced the most in terms of biomass production, today bamboo is grown there as the main ‘mop crop’ because it grows all year round.
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It was the combination of hemp and waste water which brought the people from the Aboriginal community of Malabugilmah near Tenterfield to Dr Bolton’s door about four years ago. They had heard about his successful hemp growing trials and they hoped he could help them with their own sewage problems.
The community of Malabugilmah now has complete sewage treatment facilities, and unlike other such projects in Australian Aborginal communities, the community itself was heavily involved in both the planning and upkeep of the facilities. In fact, 14 community members received proper training and are now employed to maintain the infrastructure and services required by the community.
As a mop-up crop, hemp has considerable potential to pull toxins from the soil. When irrigated with sewage, hemp will pull 90% of the nitrogen from the effluent and soil. In fact, during Dr. Bolton’s first trials, someone even tried adding ammonium to the irrigation system, and the hemp absorbed 95% of it. Hemp can also be used to pull lead from contaminated land.