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The Sustainable Landscape1
The Sustainable Landscape1
The Sustainable Landscape1
Background:
Sustainable Site Design:
Objectives
To reduce and minimize negative impacts as a result of site selection
to reduce and minimize negative site impacts as a result of the site development and its
buildings
most sites would be better off without buildings and their loads
Site Impacts:
Objective: Miminize the negative site impacts from a building
site disturbance
erosion and sediment deposits
water pollution
loss of landscape
creation of heat islands
light pollution
Living Machines accelerate nature's own water purification process. Unlike chemically
based systems, Living Machines incorporate helpful bacteria, plants, snails and fish that
thrive by breaking down and digesting organic pollutants. Wastewater treatment takes
place through a series of differently managed environments, a diversity of organisms that
eat the waste in the water.
Step 1:
The Anerobic Reactor:
Wastewater flows from a client's facility into a basic anaerobic reactor, much like a septic
tank but with features designed to enhance treatment. Without heating or mixing, this
reactor acts as a primary sedimentation basin. Solids settle and anaerobic bacteria, which
live without oxygen, feed on solids and wastes in the liquids. (ANEROBIC=NO AIR)
The anaerobic reactor is usually buried below grade. It is covered and gases produced are
passed through an activated carbon filter when necessary to control odor.
Step 2:
The Anoxic Zone:
The closed aerobic reactor is the first fully aerobic reactor in the Living Machine .
Aerators in the bottom of the tanks bubble air throughout the tank, keeping everything
mixed and providing oxygen for our waste-eating microorganisms.
Gases from the closed aerobic tank are captured and passed through a biofilter that traps
and degrades the odors. Generally, this biofilter sits directly over a portion of the reactor
and is planted with appropriate vegetation to help control moisture levels in the filter
material.
This reactor removes a large fraction of the BOD remaining in the wastewater, it is where
odorous gases are striped and the nitrification process begins, i.e., converts Kjeldahl
nitrogen (organic plus ammonia nitrogen) to nitrate.
Step 4:
Open Aerobic Reactors:
The open aerobic reactors represent the final process in the 'aerobic' portion of the Living
Machine.
The surfaces of these reactors are covered with vegetation supported by racks. The roots
of the vegetation provide surfaces for the growth of attached microbial populations that
assist in the wastewater treatment. The plants serve as habitat for beneficial insects and
organisms that graze on microbial biomass.
The plants used to cover the open aerobic reactors include tropical and sub-tropical
species that have been tested and found effective in treating wastewater as well as
providing an optimal habitat for the rest of the ecology.
These planted reactors are beautiful and make the Living Machine feel like a botanic
garden. Open aerobic reactors and 'polishing' reactors (step 6) set Living Machines
apart from all other wastewater treatment systems.
In the clarifier, the microbial communities, and any remaining solids, are separated from
the treated water.
Calm, non-aerated, water allows the remaining biological solids to settle, then those
solids are pumped back to the closed aerobic reactor (step 3) where they are broken down
and metabolized further or are wasted to a holding vessel and removed for disposal.
To achieve zero discharge, a reed bed is added to compost the solids settled out of the
wastewater in the clarifier. The solids composted in a reed bed are removed every five to
ten years (depending on the size of the bed and the amount of solids being treated) and
often are used as a beneficial soil amendment for gardeners.
The green surface you see in the clarifier is duck weed and/or frog bit. This vegetation
shades out the sun and keeps algae from growing in the reactor.
Step 6:
Polishing Filters:
Polishing filters do the final 'cleansing' of the wastewater. In these reactors wastewater is
circulated through a combination of different habitats that are home to diverse
communities of organisms that remove organic material and nutrients.
One to three polishing filters in a series are used to reduce BOD, TSS and other
parameters to meet the final discharge requirements.
Provisions are made to back flush the medium periodically to remove excess biological
growth.
When the wastewater is discharged from the polishing filters it is suitable for reuse or for
disposal into surface waters or a reduced-area subsurface disposal system. Reuse options
include landscape irrigation, toilet flushing and vehicle washing.
Biofilter:
When rainwater falls on the earth, the layers of the earths surface form a natural filter
that cleanses the water. This only works when the water is slightly soiled. When water
contains more toxic waste products and solids, a better filtration method is required to
cleanse the water.
The Waterloo Biofilter is a patented trickle-filter type treatment system which uses an
innovative filter medium to treat residential and industrial wastewater. Wastewater is
sprayed intermittently onto the medium and is allowed to drain through by gravity.
Organic biomass grows quickly within the medium after start-up, oxidizing organic
material and nitrifying ammonia in the wastewater as it passes over the biomass layer.
Because the Biofilter medium is contained in a tank it is effective under all soil or
drainage conditions and substantially outperforms its nearest rival the sand filter bed.
Existing facilities are treating flows of less than 1000 L/day to more than 300,000 L/day
(250 to 90,000 gal/day). The Waterloo Biofilter is a great improvement to the
conventional septic system and can have optional add-ons to remove nitrogen,
phosphorus and pathogens.