BOISE, Idaho — Have you wondered where everything goes after you flush the toilet? Especially after that morning coffee? It doesn't go to waste. I found out how our solid waste is transformed into valuable soil.
"When you flush your toilet, it just doesn't go away," said Cindy Busche, Education Manager at Watershed Education Center. "We take it here and first, we want to screen off anything that doesn't belong."
Used water from Boise, Garden City, and Eagle is treated at the West Boise Water Renewal Facility. Here, water is thoroughly treated before it's returned to the Boise River.
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"So solids are separated from the liquids. The liquids continue in a process that ultimately takes about 24 hours to clean it up and send it back into the Boise River as clean water," Busche explained.
So, if the water is cleaned and pumped back into the river, what happens to the solids? They're taken to a facility in Kuna where they become fertilizer.
The biosolids are transported to the Twenty Mile South Farm to dry out for a few months. Initially squishy, then dry, they eventually transform into nutrient-rich fertilizer ready for agricultural use.
"We fertilize the land with the biosolids, and we grow the crops, and we sell them in different markets. Alfalfa, we turn into hay. We sell to local dairies. Here we have some wheat that we'll sell and put on the global market," said Steve Burgos, Public Works Director for the City of Boise.
Using biosolids as fertilizer generates approximately $3-4 million annually for the city of Boise.
Most of that money is reinvested into programs and infrastructure.
"We have a lot of replacements that need to start happening. Some of our facilities are 75 years old, so we're putting that money back into some of the capital construction projects that you see at some of the facilities around the city," Burgos said.
So, whether you're washing your hands, using the restroom, or taking a shower, everything that goes down the drain ultimately benefits the community, either as fertilizer for crops or as food for the table.
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