Restoring New Zealand's waterways. Without chemicals.

E.coli bacteria in water indicate fecal contamination - from livestock, sewage, or wildlife. High levels make water dangerous for human contact and toxic to aquatic ecosystems. NZ recreational freshwater guidelines set 126 cfu/100mL as the safe swimming threshold. The pre-treatment reading of 34,840 was nearly 275 times over that limit. After six days of SEBS treatment, the level dropped to 110 - below the safe swimming standard. For context, NZ drinking water requires less than 1 per 100mL.

BOD measures how much dissolved oxygen bacteria consume while breaking down organic matter in water. When BOD is high, bacteria use up oxygen that fish and aquatic life need to survive - causing die-offs and ecosystem collapse. A pristine river sits below 1 mg/L. Anything above 8 mg/L is classified as severely polluted. Raw sewage typically measures 200-600 mg/L. The pre-treatment reading of 477 was in the raw sewage range. After SEBS treatment, it dropped to 32 - approaching the NZ discharge standard of 30 mg/L that even mechanical treatment plants target.

Ammonia in waterways comes primarily from livestock waste and fertiliser runoff. Even small concentrations are directly toxic to fish - it damages gills, reduces growth, and at higher levels causes rapid death. It also fuels algal blooms that starve water of oxygen. NZ regulators target 1 mg/L or below for treated wastewater discharge, a level that requires advanced treatment to achieve. SEBS brought this effluent pond from 9.1 mg/L down to below 1 - meeting the regulatory target without any mechanical treatment infrastructure.

TSS measures solid particles suspended in water - silt, organic debris, and waste matter that makes water murky and blocks light. High TSS smothers riverbeds, blocks sunlight that aquatic plants need for photosynthesis, and clogs the gills of fish and invertebrates. International freshwater standards generally target below 40 mg/L. At 899, this effluent pond was essentially opaque. After SEBS treatment, it dropped to 45 - approaching the freshwater quality threshold with no mechanical filtration.