Despite ongoing political unrest in the Middle East, one Bismarck company is finding common ground - and profits - between factions with a new wastewater treatment facility.

Neil Whittey, president and CEO of LAS International Ltd., said the company was selected to construct a new facility in East Jerusalem due, in part, to its successful retrofit of an existing facility there in 2001.

The old facility had problems with "massive odor, sludge accumulation and poor processing," Whittey said. "The facility was well over its capacity, and had been poorly designed from the beginning."

The LAS retrofit eliminated the problems and allowed the plant to continue operations more efficiently, he said, postponing construction of the new plant until now.

Construction on the new East Jerusalem facility will begin this fall. When the first phase is completed, in late 2007, it will serve about 150,000 people, with additional phases expanding that number to around 400,000 in the future.

The biggest political issue affecting the project concerned the volume of wastewater to be treated, Whittey said. Due to changing dynamics in the region, there was a lot of uncertainty about how many people would ultimately be served by the system.

This gave LAS a competitive advantage, Whittey said, since its systems can be installed in modules, and expanded as demand for service grows. With many treatment plants, he said, there is a very narrow window of operation concerning usage levels, and less usage than anticipated is just as bad as an overload.

Whittey said the political situation in the Middle East has not been as much of an issue as most people would assume.

"What you see in the news is not always an accurate depiction of what life is really like in the Middle East," he said. "People there go shopping and go out to the cafes at night. They go to work and school. Life goes on, whether you have violence or not. But If you're going to survive and have a society, you have to have infrastructure."

Wastewater treatment systems are an essential part of any infrastructure, regardless of the political situation, Whittey says. "Without sanitary conditions, there can be no economic development, no growth, no tourism and, ultimately, no peace."

While the number one expense in the Middle East is associated with military costs, it is followed closely by water issues, he said. "In desert regions where water is scarce, the issue cannot be overemphasized."

"Sewer and sanitary issues are always high on the list," he said.

Whittey noted that in countries like Jordan, another LAS client in the region, 85 percent of all wastewater is reclaimed, even though the average person there uses much less water per day than the average person in the U.S.

"In the U.S., the average consumption of water is 100 gallons per day for each person," he said. "In the U.K., it's 65 gallons per person. In Jordan, consumption is only 15 gallons per person."

This means that sewage strength is much higher in middle eastern countries, he said, about double what is experienced in the U.S.

Whittey said that because of the scarcity of water, countries in the Middle East are very concerned about environmental issues that could affect their water supplies. Unlike China, he said, where raw sewage is still being dumped in the oceans and rivers, Israeli and Palestinian officials wouldn't even consider practices that would allow the possibility of environmental contamination.

Whittey noted that application of human waste on land is completely banned in countries like Sweden, since officials believe that residual chemicals, including antibiotics, ultimately get into the groundwater and back into the food chain.

"Many of the things we did in the past that we thought were OK ended up causing problems for many generations," he said. "Applying human waste on land is something that will eventually come back to haunt us."

He said that in Bismarck, 50 percent of the sludge from waste treatment plants is used on fields as fertilizer.

Bill Gefroh, industrial pretreatment manager and lab manager for the city of Bismarck Public Works Department, said that there are very strict regulations on human waste sludge (bio-solids) applications on land.

"This is an area that is heavily regulated," he said, with "extensive testing requirements for nutrient levels and metal levels."

He said land, as well as the bio-solids, is tested before applications to ensure that the soil will not allow migration of nutrients, keeping groundwater safe, and tested yearly to determine that acceptable levels are maintained. Sludge is injected or plowed into the soil, with no surface applications allowed, to prevent animals and people from coming into contact with the material.

"It's great to put on soil, since it is rich in micro-nutrients," Gefroh said. "We make sure it is placed on fields where crops being grown will use the nutrients up."

He said the city is looking for additional land for applications, since previously available lands near the airport and Northern Plains Commerce Centre have been developed for other uses.

"We have to haul it further now," he said.

Officials in East Jerusalem were attracted to the "smaller footprint" left by LAS Aero-Fac technology, as well as cost savings, Whittey said. Estimated savings, due to the efficiency of the treatment process and energy-saving technologies like wind-powered surface aerators are $4 million per year.

Whittey said the new system in East Jerusalem will allow 100 percent on-site treatment, with "no sludge to separate, dry, transport and dispose. Nothing leaves the plant but water."

LAS works on hundreds of facilities around the world, with major construction projects in South America and Europe. Its Aero-Fac systems utilize a self-digesting sludge process that eliminates the need for disposal, Whittey said.

(Reach reporter Nathan Denton at 250-8261 or nathan.denton@;bismarcktribune.com.)