Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Electrocute the sewage with Dan Hendrickson

“The Colorado River is running out of water. This system gives fresh water back.”

A big ask: Hendrickson’s plans would need a diversion pond in San Ysidro
A big ask: Hendrickson’s plans would need a diversion pond in San Ysidro

Dan Hendrickson wants to save IB, and TJ. If they’ll let him.

He’s talking about the ages-old problem of Mexican sewage overwhelming treatment plants on both sides of the border. Politicians have been throwing money at it for decades, and yet nothing has really changed. Since the biggest spill, in February 2017, sewage has shuttered San Diego beaches for 500 days over three years.

He admits, with two burgeoning cities growing cheek by jowl, our binational sewage problems do sound impossibly huge. Which makes a recent federal government pledge to throw $300 million at this seems especially timely.

The question is how to clean up the polluted water, once and for all?

Sponsored
Sponsored

The answer? Simple, says Hendrickson. Just zap it. Electrocute the sewage so you kill all the pathogens.

Dan Hendrickson, bringing back Electro-Coagulation

The technology is called “Electro-Coagulation,” he says. And guess what? It’s been around for 130 years. It was back in 1889, in London, that engineers actually started applying EC to treat sewage. And avoid expensive and slow chemical reagents.

“What takes 6-8 days to treat biologically, can be treated in 10-20 seconds of electrical charge,” says Hendrickson. “It’s like giving the electric chair to billions of bugs.”

And the beauty is the contaminants are not only zapped clean, the electrical charge also makes them sticky, “coagulates” them into cakes of material that can be used as fertilizer. And the water can be cleaned all the way up to potable.

Did it catch on? Uh, no. Not really.

Of course in a polluted TJ river situation, we can be talking huge amounts of material needing decontamination.

“During the big event of 2017, our estimates came out to average about 4.7 million gallons a day. It is [contaminated at a rate of] 4400 parts per million, and it has to be brought down to 175 parts per million, which is a reduction of around 97 percent.”

Talk to Dan for half an hour and your head starts spinning. He has stats and formulas coming out his ears. He also has a life story that makes most of our lives look like, well, gray water. He is an ex-Navy SEAL captain, helped start Iron Man, and he genuinely believes electro-coagulation is desperately needed.

“Fifty years ago, I commanded a SEAL team. We would take the teams down to the Tijuana River sloughs for training.”

The sloughs were especially useful training for Vietnam, where crawling along rice paddy canals was how you got to work. That would be impossible today. The sloughs are too polluted.

After he retired from the Navy 30 years ago, he became a mechanical engineer, and launched himself into projects like this one that look so, well, quixotic. “But apart from the regular pollution issue, EC answers a problem both we and Mexico see coming down the tracks,” he says. “The Colorado River is running out of water. This system gives fresh water back.”

The only question is: why so-o long? It’s 50 years since the Clean Water Act. Dan Hendrickson smiles the smile of a man who has fought this battle before. “The problem,” he says, “is that there are entities involved who are — how should I say? — invested in the status quo.”

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Domestic disturbance at the home of Mayor Gloria and partner

Home Sweet Homeless?
A big ask: Hendrickson’s plans would need a diversion pond in San Ysidro
A big ask: Hendrickson’s plans would need a diversion pond in San Ysidro

Dan Hendrickson wants to save IB, and TJ. If they’ll let him.

He’s talking about the ages-old problem of Mexican sewage overwhelming treatment plants on both sides of the border. Politicians have been throwing money at it for decades, and yet nothing has really changed. Since the biggest spill, in February 2017, sewage has shuttered San Diego beaches for 500 days over three years.

He admits, with two burgeoning cities growing cheek by jowl, our binational sewage problems do sound impossibly huge. Which makes a recent federal government pledge to throw $300 million at this seems especially timely.

The question is how to clean up the polluted water, once and for all?

Sponsored
Sponsored

The answer? Simple, says Hendrickson. Just zap it. Electrocute the sewage so you kill all the pathogens.

Dan Hendrickson, bringing back Electro-Coagulation

The technology is called “Electro-Coagulation,” he says. And guess what? It’s been around for 130 years. It was back in 1889, in London, that engineers actually started applying EC to treat sewage. And avoid expensive and slow chemical reagents.

“What takes 6-8 days to treat biologically, can be treated in 10-20 seconds of electrical charge,” says Hendrickson. “It’s like giving the electric chair to billions of bugs.”

And the beauty is the contaminants are not only zapped clean, the electrical charge also makes them sticky, “coagulates” them into cakes of material that can be used as fertilizer. And the water can be cleaned all the way up to potable.

Did it catch on? Uh, no. Not really.

Of course in a polluted TJ river situation, we can be talking huge amounts of material needing decontamination.

“During the big event of 2017, our estimates came out to average about 4.7 million gallons a day. It is [contaminated at a rate of] 4400 parts per million, and it has to be brought down to 175 parts per million, which is a reduction of around 97 percent.”

Talk to Dan for half an hour and your head starts spinning. He has stats and formulas coming out his ears. He also has a life story that makes most of our lives look like, well, gray water. He is an ex-Navy SEAL captain, helped start Iron Man, and he genuinely believes electro-coagulation is desperately needed.

“Fifty years ago, I commanded a SEAL team. We would take the teams down to the Tijuana River sloughs for training.”

The sloughs were especially useful training for Vietnam, where crawling along rice paddy canals was how you got to work. That would be impossible today. The sloughs are too polluted.

After he retired from the Navy 30 years ago, he became a mechanical engineer, and launched himself into projects like this one that look so, well, quixotic. “But apart from the regular pollution issue, EC answers a problem both we and Mexico see coming down the tracks,” he says. “The Colorado River is running out of water. This system gives fresh water back.”

The only question is: why so-o long? It’s 50 years since the Clean Water Act. Dan Hendrickson smiles the smile of a man who has fought this battle before. “The problem,” he says, “is that there are entities involved who are — how should I say? — invested in the status quo.”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The White-crowned sparrow visits, Liquidambars show their colors

Bat populations migrate westward
Next Article

Pranksters vandalize Padres billboard in wake of playoff loss

Where’s the bat at?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader