Nature Works Remediation Corp: Fixing pollution the natural way


Take grungy water poisoned by arsenic, cadmium, antimony and other nasties corralled from an old Cominco dumpsite, stir it up with sludge from Celgar’s water treatment plant, adjust the chemistry with a splash of lime, add a smidgeon of specially cultivated bacteria, and voila! It’s the first stage in a unique remediation facility developed by Nature Works in collaboration with Teck Cominco at its Trail Operations. Subsequent stages see the water seeping through a series of wetlands planted with selected plant species, to emerge sparkling clear with 98% of the metals removed. The water then irrigates a nursery, growing hybrid poplars used for greening open spaces around the community.

 

It’s that old cliché, the win-win situation: Teck Cominco provides the opportunity and gets a contamination problem fixed, and Nature Works gets a pilot facility to develop remediation technology that is now being marketed as far afield as South America and China. Al Mattes at Guelph University provides the science and CEO Matt Pommer provides the business expertise at the Rossland office.

 

“We also remediate land,” said Matt. ”We slurry specific ratios of sludge and lime laced with a seed recipe suitable for the particular site, then spray it on to the land enabling us to reach areas inaccessible by traditional methods.”

It’s innovative and its entrepreneurial: it’s transforming basic research into solving real environmental problems using natural, energy efficient and relatively low cost solutions. Nature works! The challenge is in the marketing, in overcoming the traditional conservatism in the environmental treatment field. “Our mindset now is to capitalize on the opportunities that are out there, worldwide.”

 

Nature Works Contact Information

 

Bad situations demand good solutions, creating opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs.
 
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