Wastewater treatment company Natural Systems has developed technology that can preserve freshwater supplies or create a fuel feedstock. Through removing toxins, Natural Systems can reuse wastewater for non -potable purposes, or altneratively be used to extract fats, oils and grease (FOG) from water.

Taking this technology to transportation ports in California could drive the cargo industry into sustainable businesses practices.

Through Natural Systems' Zero-D wastewater treatment technology, cargo trucks are washed using recycled water supplies. The recycled water is generated from previous truck washing cycles. Wastewater is then sent through an electronic coagulation step, filtered for toxins, and then stored for reuse. The specialized coagulation step “shocks” water molecules by “breaking molecular bonds that bind contaminants to the [water] allowing easy filtration and producing clean water," according to Natural Systems.

These efforts will be a welcome change in California. For years, the California Air Resources Board, the Environmental Protection Agency, and local environmental grassroots organizations have worked to hold cargo businesses working at the state’s major ports like Oakland and Los Angeles responsible for their pollution emissions. Those emissions and the environmentally unregulated operations of cargo businesses have lead to poor air quality and polluted soil and water supplies across the state. Environmental efforts only recently reached moderate success when environmentalists requested that ships and trucks use cleaner fuels. But, businesses are putting a fight against all things green if it means changing they way they operate.

Reducing the amount of wasted freshwater supplies and the amount of organic materials that may end up in California bays may not help the air, but will help the environment. If Natural Systems can deliver their sustainable options for treating municipal and industrial wastewater to ports across the state, it would be a "shocking" success in protecting and preserving the environment. And, hey, maybe then can even sell their accumulated FOG as a fuel source to the ports' cargo operators.