What we put back out into the environment is heavily regulated by the State and the Federal Government. Sumner continues to exceed the strict standards. The State requires the water going back out into the rivers to have 85% of pollutants removed.  Sumner removes 99% of pollutants.  If you saw it, you’d possibly mistake it for drinking water. We have an on-site lab that continually tests the water, and the State also tests to double check our work.

At the same time, we invested in large driers  that pasteurize the biosolids.  It produces a soil-like product called Sumner Grow that farmers and gardeners use for a great, natural soil amendment.  Because Sumner Grow goes out by the buckets and even truckloads, we don’t have to truck it to Eastern Washington to be burned, another benefit to our environment and ahuge savings of time, cost and truck emissions.  You might say it’s quite a “hot” item.

All of this is done with a highly skilled staff of nine employees who take a lot of pride in providing an extremely important service for each one of us.  It may not be a glamorous job in some people’s eyes, but when you consider all they do, they are an remarkable group of people doing amazing work.  Last week, I asked you to raise a glass to toast our water crew.  This week, well, a toast isn’t really appropriate.   But think about if we still had to take baths in washtubs or go out back to use the outhouse.  I think we can all appreciate that we have facilities in our homes and businesses that we can use every day.  That’s something to be very grateful for indeed.