As we used to say in the Army, “There I was, knee deep in a pile of … (whatever).” This past Friday I was in the middle of a vast pool of waste. How else does one spend time in retirement? Worse yet, I was there entirely of my own accord! (Brief diversion: this reminds me of the old English joke. Bloke #1: “Took me wife on a vacation to the Caribbean.” Bloke #2: “Jamaica?” Bloke #1: “No, she went of her own accord!”
Anyway, on Friday several of my fellow Rotarians, Judy and I went to visit the local sewage treatment plant in Chapala. As part of our ongoing efforts to work with the pueblo called Ojo de Agua (more on that here), we were invited by our engineer associates from Guadalajara. The pueblo has no sewage treatment, so we went to see what it involves, and specifically the possibility of installing a wetlands (humedales) to address their needs.
So there we were, surrounded by sewage in a variety of stages of treatment. While the treatment plant for Chapala, a city for 50,000, is a large network of tanks, pumps, and industrial devices, the concepts are fairly simple. The raw sewage must have any solid trash separated out. It must be treated with bacteria and air to consume and transform the biologic components. It must be filtered with sand and gravel to eliminate particulate matter. And if it is going to be consumed by humans, it must be chlorinated and and sterilized with ultraviolet light.
Be thankful there is no Smell-i-vision 
Bubbling with aerobic activity 
Equipment!
If you need to do all this on an industrial scale, you end up with a plant like the one in the pictures. We are considering how to use a simple wetlands, which uses a series of small, hidden tanks to accomplish some of the processing, and finishes by using the wastewater to irrigate a series of ponds/fields (aka wetlands) where non-edibles can be grown.
Almost done… 
ready to grow orchids
The plant in Chapala has a demonstration wetlands available. What is most interesting is the wetlands require little equipment, power or maintenance. The one shown here has been unsupervised for nine years, and still water suitable for irrigation comes out of the spigots!
We learned quite a lot about the process of waste treatment, and got a decent tan to boot! In case you’re wondering about the title, it’s a quote from the film Full Metal Jacket. The first half of that movie is an amazing re-creation of 1960’s Marine Corps boot camp, complete with real (former) Marine drill instructor R. Lee Ermey working without a script! While it is incredibly raw and vulgar (consistent with our topic today, no?), the first half merits watching. The second half is a dystopian fantasy set in Vietnam, just as vulgar but probably not worth your time.