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lMtu BIOSOLIDSTURN BURNED-OUT BUFFALO CREEK COLORFUL AGAIN '1 ) Y'. '17 . ,l.',. l ~ ;.. ". _ _ . George Kochaniec Jr JRocky Mountain News Steve Frank of Metro Wastewater and Bob Brobst of the Environmental Protection Agency check on an area near Top of the World Campground, which was burned in the Buffalo Creek fire of 1996. It has since been reseeded. George Kochaniec Jr ./Rocky Mountain News Steve Frank of Metro Wastewater shoots digital video of an area burned by the Buffalo Creek fire. Planting such strips can go a long way to saving a drainage from erosion, Brobst said. "In critical areas, by adding the organic matter, you mushroom your-chances of getting a solid , strip'th'at will stop the water flow. : T4~~e are filter sqips: they slow the water, they remove the silt." Slowing the rush of water from the once-barren slopes became a primary concern two months after the wildfire when stormwa- ter rushing from the bare.slopes inundated the community of Buf- falo Creek, killing two people and By Charley Able -- Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer BUFFALO CREEK - Verdant, knee-deep grass and vibrant wildflowers poke through slopes scorched by wild- fire just 16 months ago. "This is my baby," Bob Brobst said as he surveyed the thriving strips of vegetation growing in soil treated with treated effluent from the Denver area's sewers. Brobst is pleased with the ap- pearance of his 40-acre test plot at the Top of the World Camp- ground, in the heart of the Buffa- lo Creek fire that blackened 12,000 acres in 1996. It is the first test ofbiosolids as a medium to help restore vegetation in severely burned areas. Metro Wastewater, which produces tons of biosolids a day, is hoping to find another use for its product; the U.S. Forest Ser- vice is hoping to find a way to speed up erosion-control mea- sures in burn areas. The Environmental Protection Agency~ Brobst's employer- is conducting the experiment with Metro Wastewater, Col- orado State University, the For- est Service and others. Brobst is seeking $100,000 from his agency for each of the next five years to continue the experiment. Metro Wastewater provided the equipment and labor to apply the biosolids, which it markets in limited quantities as MET- ROGRO organic fertilizer and soil conditioner. The product is much like the composted sheep or chicken ma- nure commonly used in home gardens, The district produced 72 dry tons or the product a day in 1996, said Steve Frank of Metro Waste- watel: Varying amounts of biosolids were applied in strips. Thin, scruffy grasses growing between the strips provide a clear contrast between the treated and untreat- ed plots. . The idea of using wastewater . to promote plant growth is as old as wastewater treatment, Brobst said. The process is referred to in Les Miserables, which was writ- ten in 1862. In the ashes of the devastating 1996 fire, Brobst saw an opportu- nity for a real-life laboratory, a chance to see how treated efflu- ent could affect revegetation and erosion control. "The.Forest Service's No.1 goal was to show how we best can stop erosion," said Brobst, dubbed the "King of Biosolids" by his colleagues. . l~jlo~J\" 'y'.:.;'~.:ff ~.~ ~\: leaving millions in damage in its wake. "Rainfall plots," a collection of strips of biosolid-bolstered soil, will be inundated with water from high-pressure sprinkler heads to approximate a 4-inch- per-hour rainstorm to gauge the increased absorption rate and erosion control potential of the experiment. Other plots, treated at rates varying from two tons of biosolids per acre to 32 tons per acre, over the next five years will yield data on the experiment's rate of growth, productivity, feed value, rate of return of native plant species and invasive species and other factors. The carbon bound up in the material is the key, providing an organic boost to both the soil and the plants. Nitrogen alone, the pri- mary growth component in fertil- izers, would produce a much less dramatic difference, Brobst said. Most of Brobst's plots also were seeded with a mixture of blue gramma and wheat grasses native to the Rocky Mountains af~er th~soil\Vas ~rok~n and jJr~,_ pared using an industrial disc, a large version of the tractor- pulled discs used by farmers. But most impressive is a plot on which the biosolids were sim- ply sprayed on the surface and no reseeding was attempted. The plot is thick with grasses and wildflowers, a veritable forested pasture when compared to untreated sites. Although the study is months or years away from drawing sci- entilic conclusions, Brobst and Frank said the initial success provides reason for optimism. "Our observations are real en- couraging," Brobst said. "That's without any numbers, just visual comparison." That visual comparison shows dramatic evidence of success, Frank said. "After wandering through that knee-deep grass out there,l don't see how it can't but do that," Frank said. "We knew it would do the job, but it is one thing knowing it and another thing seeing it demonstrated in scientifically controlled test con- d!t!ons." 'f j'; .', ; .; :./' . I. I"~