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Reduce, reuse, recycle,” has been environmentalists’
mantra for many years. To lessen our impact upon the Earth,
we should reduce our waste, reuse as many products as possible
to eliminate further waste, and recycle (then reuse) materials
that can withstand a longer lifespan. Plastics, glass, metals,
and paper products can easily work the “three Rs”
into their production process; however, the resources in most
scarce supply—such as natural gas and oil—cannot
be reused.
The same might be said for the earth’s most valuable
resource—fresh, clean, potable water. True, efforts have
been made to reduce our use of water, although, for the most
part, these changes have been on a small scale—such as
not allowing the tap to flow while brushing one’s teeth,
or putting a brick in the toilet tank to use less water per
flush. By the same token, water reuse is usually a house-by-house
procedure, and often not practiced unless the situation is
dire (such as toting laundry rinse water out to one’s
garden during drought periods and watering bans).
Unless one lives on the International Space Station, water
recycling is rarely used. In fact, here on earth such a program
might be nearly impossible, as all wastewater—whether
it be from washing vegetables, rinsing the bathtub, or flushing
the toilet—ends up mixed together in the same wastewater
stream. Recycling the “semi-clean” water becomes
impossible when human waste is added to the mix.
Perhaps the solution is to not combine all wastewater—a
good idea on paper, but considering that the vast majority
of our infrastructure does so, and that the replacement of
all that equipment nationwide would cost hundreds of billions
of dollars—recycling water remains a pipe dream.
But what about new construction? Could homes and businesses
install private water treatment facilities? Some already do—nearly
a quarter of US homes operate a septic system. Could new construction
in “septic areas” include systems that would treat
graywater and blackwater separately?
Divide to Conquer
With such applications in mind, the Equaris Corp. (www.equaris.com)
of Afton, MN, has developed a new proprietary process—“separation
technology wastewater treatment.” Equaris believes this
process, when used in residences and commercial properties,
has the ability to serve as an alternative to traditional
centralized wastewater facilities.
Equaris’s separation technology combines patented waste
treatment systems with ultra-ultra low-flush toilets and garbage
disposals. Non-reusable blackwater from these sources is plumbed
to a bio-matter re-sequencing converter or compost tank, and
graywater (from laundry, dishes, baths, etc.) is given a separate
aerobic biological treatment.
Total graywater recycling is then possible by utilizing ozone,
ultraviolet, ultrafiltration, and reverse osmosis. In many
cases, separation technology wastewater treatment may eliminate
the need for piped water service; if more water is needed
than the system can recycle, then catching, filtering, disinfecting,
and storing rainwater can serve modest water makeup requirements.
When building a new home in the country-side outside Duluth,
MN, Dave Stark not only wanted to make his house environmentally
sound, he also wanted to control costs. By choosing Equaris’s
separation technology, Stark was able to do both.
Saving the Site, the Land, and Cash
“In many ways, the house was designed around its water
system,” Stark relates. “The home is situated on
the shores of Lake Superior, and the soil contains lots of
red clay and bedrock. If there’s a failure in one’s
septic system, that water hits the nearly impenetrable red
clay and ends up as overland flow. Not good—especially
since my homesite is close to a trout stream, steep erodible
slopes, and a series of beaver ponds—as well as 300 feet
from the neighbor’s well.”
Stark, whose background is in water resources, was working
at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Geology
while planning his house; he chuckles, “It’s my
nature that I don’t usually accept ‘how we’ve
always done it.’ The Minnesota Department of Health was
open to looking at my plans for an ISTS (individual sewage
treatment system); its staff had met Clint (Elston, president
of Equaris) six years before, so they were aware of his ‘advanced
alternative system.’ After approving my plans, the Health
Department, keenly interested in the project, asked me to
‘Let us know how it goes.’”
All three of the Equaris systems were installed into Stark’s
house, as the Starks decided to install a rainwater collection
system.The entire system carried a $37,000 price tag, “but
I justified that cost after I got quotes from local excavators
for a traditional septic mound system, which would have cost
between $28,000 and $32,000 to build, and that didn’t
include about $10,000 for digging a well. As it is, my neighbor’s
bedrock well contains highly mineralized water, so he ended
up putting in a reverse osmosis system anyway. I don’t
have a well. We have a metal roof from which we collect rainwater,
and store the water in two 500-gallon basins in the basement.
Originally, the house wasn’t designed with a basement,
but for cisterns we needed it, and we call it our ‘technology
pod.’ “
Doesn’t acid rain make for a strong drink? “Acid
rain is everywhere—but the rainwater quality is pretty
good up here. The water has a very, very low mineral content.”
Stark expressed other reasons for not choosing a septic system.
“We’re seeing climate shifts here, which, some winters
back, resulted in a lot of septic system failures because
we didn’t get snow—which acts as insulation for
the mound system, helping to keep it from freezing. Also,
traditional mounds are being made so much bigger than in the
past; although my lot is 22 acres, it’s one of the smallest
around here, and the way my house is situated, my septic system
would have been too close to the neighbor’s well.”
Although Stark is pleased with the finished result, he made
plans for the home’s possible future owners. “I
put contingencies in the system, as well as a water/well pipeline
into the house—just in case the next owner doesn’t
want to use the ISTS system.”
However, once that projected home-owner understood the cost
savings, Equaris president Clint Elston believes his system
would stay online. “Once you remove the minerals from
water, as well as the soaps/salts and organics, you don’t
need a water softener and iron remover—making graywater
recycling much more cost-effective than having a well and
treating all the water pumped from it.”
The Equaris System
Explained
Elston explains how the Equaris Systems work: “Today,
40% of residential wastewater and up to 80% of commercial
wastewater and 90% of the organic load to septic or sewer
systems are from the toilets and garbage disposals. The heart
of our separation technology is the composter or, as we have
branded it, the Bio-Matter Resequencing Converter (BMRC).”
In addition to making it possible to recycle greywater, eliminating
the blackwater solves other problems downstream. “Sometimes
we don’t realize what’s in our toilet wastes,”
Elston says. “If you take medicines, there’s a good
chance that a certain amount of those drugs are included in
the waste. With current technology, those chemicals are not
eliminated, and travel through the sewage system and into
waterways, soils, and aquifers. For example, there have been
reports worldwide that high concentrations of estrogen in
natural waters below the discharges from sewage treatment
plants have turned some male fish populations into females.
Equaris Separation Technology and the BMRC biologically transform
those wastes safely into soil.
“The organic waste is eaten up, resulting in an end
product that is below 30-30 BOD and TOS; and 99% of nitrogen,
phosphorous, and pharmaceuticals are gone. In the end, 95%
of the blackwater waste becomes CO2 and water vapor.”
Separating the blackwater from the graywater is done at the
source; waste from the toilet and the garbage disposal sink
is piped directly to the BMRC. “Unlike a backyard compost
pile, which should contain only plant wastes, the BMRC can
digest meat and bone scraps. We actually want the home to
contain a disposal, as those organic wastes can help the BMRC
and worms do their job more effectively,” Elston says.
“The garbage disposer is installed in its own small
sink, separate from the kitchen sink, because dishwater and
the like is considered greywater, and can be recycled,”
Stark explains. “Both sinks are plumbed separately.”
Does the composter ever have to be manually drained? “Once
in a while,” Stark says. “I have a toxic waste barrel,
which we fill and take to a hazardous waste facility. But
what I’m disposing is much, much less than what the average
household flushes into the sewers.”
The large augers in Equaris’s automated composter stir
up waste so it breaks down as completely as possible. “The
end result is about 5 gallons of soil per year,” Elston
notes.
Graywater is channeled through a three-tank system. “An
air compressor puts dissolved oxygen into it, and microorganisms
help clean up the water. The ozone tank removes any ‘biology’
from the graywater, which then goes through a mechanical system
that includes a 75-micron filter, a UV light, another filter,
more UV light, two more filters, and a reverse osmosis membrane.
Usually, when you put graywater through a membrane you only
get 25% to 50% of the water out—but we have it go back
into the ozone tank, and squeeze all usable water of it out—95%,”
Elston says. “Once it’s clean, it’s stored
in a 200-gallon tank. The water is now the purity of bottled
water, and it feeds every fixture in your house. Before it
comes out of the tap, it goes through another 2-micron filter
and a UV light. As another precaution, the plumbing keeps
water moving through the pipes, so bacteria doesn’t have
a chance to build up.
“If the water from the graywater system is to be recycled
we then kill the biological process in the treated graywater
utilizing ozone in a fourth tank,” Elston adds. “We
only recycle treated graywater. We do not recycle any of the
toilet water used in the BMRC.”
As for water “lost” in the process, that’s
no problem.
“Instead of drilling a well or being supplied with piped
water,” Elston says, “we utilize rainwater catchment
from the roof/gutters and cisterns for our makeup water that
we lose from flushing the toilets, evaporation and drinking.
We estimate that we only need 5 gallons of makeup water per
person per day instead of the standard 75 gallons of water
per person per day.”
How Long Does 1,000 Gallons Last?
“People ask, ‘How do you get by with only 1,000
gallons of water in the system—especially in 40-degree-below
winters?’ Well, I tell them, the only water you lose
is the little bit of water you flush down the toilet,”
Stark says. “And the system includes specialized ultra-low-flow
water toilets, which use only a half liter of water per flush.
For larger jobs, the toilets have a handle, which allows you
to add water if needed.”
Does a half liter of water have enough power to move waste,
or does the system operate with vacuum suction? “In our
two-story home, both toilets are situated above one another,
which simplifies the piping. A ball valve right beneath each
bowl gets the stuff down, and gravity alone gives the system
extra ‘push’; the drain pipes have a steep, 2.5-inch-per-foot
slope; the usual standard is a quarter inch per foot. In other
installations, however, Clint has had to use a vacuum system,”
Stark explains.
The Duluth home was designed to be environmentally sensitive
in all areas. “We put in a solar thermal heating system,
solar collectors, and the house also contains passive solar
features. The Equaris system seemed a logical step in that
same environmental direction. I think mine is Equaris’s
eighth system worldwide. It’s sturdy—so industrially
made, there’s ‘overkill’ in it, redundant systems
that make it extremely dependable. They’re trying to
make it more affordable,” Stark explains.
Any qualms about drinking “used” water? “I
had health concerns about taking used water and treating it,
but I realized that’s already happening away from the
home in municipal water treatment plants. I am getting more
comfortable with it—I drink it. I initially tested the
water, with help from friends who work in labs around town—passed
every test. I’m trying to generate interest at the University
of Minnesota to do a study on the system itself,” Stark
says. “I served as general contractor for the building
of this house, and when the news got around, a number of people
came through the house to view the water treatment system.”
Coming to a Town Near You?
Elston anticipates the Equaris Systems could eventually be
used on a city basis. “We need to understand that we
are in a water and sanitation crisis the same as we were in
the ’70s and ’80s during the energy crisis. It is
estimated that it will cost us over $4 trillion just to fix
our aging piped infrastructure. That does not include expanding
it!
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| Some of the components in the third prototype of the Equaris system. |
“Many municipalities have no money to expand sewer systems;
if they offered tax incentives for builders, businesses, and
homeowners to treat the wastes and wastewater separately onsite,
it could end up a win-win situation for everyone involved,
from the engineers, septic designer/installers, architects,
plumbers, to the politicians, and the homeowners. Since we
are manufacturing these systems in the US and are planning
expansion of assembly plants in every state to reduce transportation
costs and create local economic development, Equaris is also
creating jobs.
“Everyone wants new homes, but no one wants a sewage
treatment plant. One local community wanted to increase its
plant, but an environmental group sued to prohibit them from
expanding, because that would increase the total daily maximum
loading limit of phosphorous a nearby lake. The town not only
lost the suit, but also the appeal,” Elston says. There
are thousands of communities nationwide that are in the same
or similar situation and have stopped their economic development
capability. “The Equaris Systems could solve such problems
for communities on sewers that are maxed out.”
Sewage isn’t the only problem municipalities face. “Water
is the oil of the twenty-first century,” Elston concludes.
“There are more and more people in the world, and less
and less clean water for them to drink. Getting more use out
of the water we already have by doing more with less will
help us avoid wastewater pollution problems and water shortages.”
Writer JANIS KEATING is a frequent
contributor to Forester Communications publications.
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- November/December 2005
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