https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/11/13/oh-noes-cop23-attendees-to-hear-that-co2-will-rise-again-after-3-years-of-stability/

No news yet about temperatures, but they are confident about CO2 rising.

Nov 13, 2017 at 2:20 PM | stewgreen

Is there a link between Green Blob Desperation and man made CO2? Or is it linked to the health of the world's botany in water and on land, plus variations in received sunshine?

Nov 13, 2017 at 3:12 PM | Supertroll

I am sure there is an obvious geological explanation, but mineral mines do seem to cut through a variety of metals and ores, producing non organic waste and waste water, that naturally occurring bacteria have little appetite for. Lack of carbon?

There are bacteria that will munch their way through crude oil, and some coal residues.

Faecal gobbling bacteria are everywhere!

GolfCharlie. An interesting place to visit is Wheal Jane Mine in Cornwall. In 1992 after pumping was switched off highly metal contaminated mine waters backed up, burst out of the mine - contaminating the nearby Carnon Valley and Fal Estuary. Two systems were installed to deal with this acid mine drainage - a "natural" system of reed beds, limestone drains and straw/organic muck filters, and a chemical system. The natural system occupied the valley bottom and treated at most ~5% of the minewater, whereas the chemical system treated the rest of the outflow in a big metal box maybe 5 metres cubed. Guess which system gets all the publicity? Check here:
http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/mines/carnon-valley/wheal-jane.htm

The power of green propaganda!

PS. Obviously since I visited the plant has expanded. I found a u-tube about it
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqkBSJPwEC4

Nov 13, 2017 at 12:36 PM | DaveS

Thanks for that. Reeds beds are effective until it gets too cold! Sewage treatment is a biological process, and does have an optimum temperature range.

Some of the Veterinary links do note the problems with piglets drinking nitrate rich water, so the complication with infants seems likely.

People used to drinking "soft" water can experience an "upset tummy" when they move to a hard water area, and domestic water softeners are not a solution.

stewgreen has started a separate thread in Discussion.

Nov 13, 2017 at 12:27 PM | stewgreen

But will it change the stance of Scottish newspapers to Scottish Independence, BREXIT etc?

@gc

reed beds are a low-tech, low energy option but require a lot of land-area. Sewage works which have tight nitrogen-based discharge limits will likely rely on more intensive biological treatment, nitrification (ammonia to nitrate) followed by denitrification (nitrate to nitrogen). Biological denitrification in potable water treatment normally requires adding some additional carbon source (I think methanol, ethanol and acetic acid were tried - I don't know off-hand what the French use), but in sewage treatment there's likely enough organic carbon present not to require any such supplementation.

A quick scan of relevant material shows that the drinking water nitrate limit as set in the EU directive and UK regs followed the WHO guideline, itself derived on the basis of links between short-term exposure of bottle-fed infants and blue-baby syndrome (proper name methaemoglobinaemia if you can pronounce it). Any link with stomach cancer has evidently now been ruled out. There are related limits for nitrite and the combination of nitrite and nitrate.