Grey and Black water reuse | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Fred H Olson (fholson![]() |
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Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2007 14:52:58 -0700 (PDT) |
Patricia DeWitt <patriciadewitt [at] earthlink.net> is the author of the message below. It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org> which was originally posted in html only which the list does not handle well. -------------------- FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS -------------------- Milagro Cohousing Tucson, Arizona For more information go to green design on the website: http://www.milagrocohousing.org Members of Milagro have long been deeply concerned regarding recycling, especially water, in the desert where there is so little. These concerns induced us to choose to recycle all of our wastewater. In order to do that we constructed a wetlands wastewater treatment and reclamation process. Construction costs were partially offset by not having to install sewage pumps to lift our sewage to the end of the city sewage line. We also save the monthly sewer connection fee. In operating this system waste is first received by septic tanks which settle the solids. Septic outflow is fed to one of two treatment beds. These treatment beds are 18 inches of gravel with a plastic 20-millimeter liner to avoid losing the liquid in to the ground. The gravel is topped with four inches o f mulch, mostly woodchips, which is planted with Bull Rushes and Sedges. The wastewater flows in one end of the treatment bed and overflows out the other end. During its time in the gravel bed it is further decomposed by bacteria living on the roots of the plants and on the surface of the gravel. The outflow from the treatment beds is gathered in a one thousand-gallon collection tank. A pump moves the reclaimed wastewater from that tank up through the center of the community where it is delivered from below ground to our landscaping. There is no odor. Patricia DeWitt
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