An overview of animal waste water management: Biodgesters in the Monteverde Zone of Costa Rica, August 2014

Alternative Title

Una visión general de la gestión de las aguas residuales de los animales: Biodigestores en la Zona de Monteverde de Costa Rica

Creator

Chelsea Solomon
Roberto Infante Rosado
Yanelis Hez
Melissa Ortiz

Files

Publication Date

August 2014

Abstract

There has been an increase in environmental awareness since Costa Rica promised to be carbon neutral by 2021. Governmental organizations such as a high school in Santa Elena and Earth university have taken it upon themselves to fulfill this initiative through the implementation of more environmentally conscious technologies, i.e. a biodigester at a local high school in Santa Elena. The problem was that there was no sort of investigation understanding how the community within the school and the town’s community would react to this new addition. We were also asked to give information to the school so that they may better understand how the biodigester will affect them and may track the progress of their carbon neutrality. Free-listing, surveys, interviews, focus groups, and participant observations were methods used in order to understand the school’s community and the town’s community’s perceptions of animal waste water management. pH, BOD5, soil nutrient tests, and total and volatile solids were used to analyze surrounding biodigesters and provide suggestions to the school. The school’s surrounding water supply was also analyzed in order to understand the environmental impact of the school before the biodigester is implemented. We realized that the youth had been exposed to technologies like biodigesters much more than older generations; but the older generations had much more expertise in other forms of animal waste water management. Through the lab results we understood that the school will experience environmental benefits from switching from an anaerobic lagoon to a biodigester not in the increase of the cleaning of the waste but mostly the methane collection; it will provide a source of saving while decreasing the emissions of the greenhouse gas.

Resumen

No Spanish language abstract available.

Keywords

Animal waste management, Wastewater management, Community Heal, 2014

Palabras claves

Gestión de residuos de animales, Gestión de aguas residuales, Salud comunitaria 2013

Extent

37 pages

Geographic Location

Monteverde (Puntarenas, Costa Rica)

Holding Location

Monteverde Institute

Language

English

Media Type

Drafts (documents)

Format

Digital Only

Identifier

M38-00105

Creative Commons

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Solomon, Chelsea; Infante Rosado, Roberto; Hez, Yanelis; and Ortiz, Melissa, "An overview of animal waste water management: Biodgesters in the Monteverde Zone of Costa Rica, August 2014" (2014). Culture, Community, and Health [Monteverde Institute]. 105.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/community_health/105