This proximity to the coast, coupled with numerous salt marshes and ponds, results in tremendous pressure on the surrounding environment when it comes to dealing with the state’s wastewater. Ten of the state’s 39 cities and towns have no municipal sewer collection and treatment systems, and 31% of the state’s residents rely on septic systems for treatment of domestic wastewaters. This need resulted in the development of the New England Onsite Wastewater Training Program and its physical training center at Peckham Farm located at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. The OWTC is one of eight regional centers around the US.
In the early 1990s, George Loomis, center director, worked with partner agencies and organizations to establish the center at the University of Rhode Island (URI). “Rhode Island had been dealing with alternative septic systems since the middle of the 1980s,” says Loomis. “As things started to become more and more active here in Rhode Island, we definitely felt the need to have an onsite wastewater training center as a training tool and to help raise the awareness and knowledge level about alternative systems.”
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PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISAND |
| A student in the Inspection 100 class uses a mirror to locate the inlet and outlet of a septic tank. |
Initially state and federal funds were received to help establish the center. Now the workshop registration fees and outside state or federal grants are essential to keep the center open. Loomis’ salary is paid by URI Cooperative Extension and Agricultural Experiment Station funds; all other staff salaries are from outside sources. The OWTC was the second such training center in the US. The first was started in North Carolina.
The OWTC is a demonstration and field training facility for both conventional and innovative and alternative septic system technologies. The center has classroom and field training courses that cover all aspects of septic system siting, design, installation, inspection, operation, and maintenance. Twenty-two full-scale systems have been installed above ground for hands-on learning. Those participating at the center can see full-scale examples of trickling filters, pressure-dosed systems, extended aeration systems, fixed activated sludge, sand filtration, denitrification, biofilters (peat, foam and textile), composting toilets, conventional systems, and septic drain field options. During the past year the center had over 500 registrations for its programs.
The Peckham Farm training center is located on over 80 acres at one of the URI’s research farms. “Only clean water passes through the Peckham Farm training systems,” says Loomis. “These are our teaching and training systems, and they need to be able to be studied in detail. We pull the pumps on them, describe the component parts, show building and construction techniques with them, and sometimes they are completely disassembled and then reassembled for a class.”
The center has 56 actual research-based demonstration systems located throughout the state that were put in place to replace failed systems. “We have done demonstration workshops on these systems out in the communities as a way for participants to basically ‘kick the wastewater system tires,’” says Loomis. “We’ve utilized these systems to research treatment performance, operation and maintenance needs, and technology robustness. This information is reported to state regulatory officials to help them make policy decisions.”
Under their current demonstration project, there are 13 systems in the Green Hill Pond Watershed communities of South Kingstown and Charlestown and another 12 systems on Block Island, located 13 miles off the Rhode Island coast. Block Island has a very limited water supply as well as an extremely variable population throughout the year—800 residents in winter as opposed to over 10,000 in summer. All of those 25 demonstration systems are on residential lots, roughly half of which have permanent year-round use and half of which are seasonally used.
“The main goals of both project areas were to demonstrate to the communities what they could do with alternative technologies to repair some of these sites experiencing either failure, or replace those older-style, sub-standard systems already in place,” says Justin Jobin, community wastewater specialist with the NEOWT Center. “Residents were very interested in putting alternative treatments on these lots to demonstrate how communities can start adopting regulations required from an advanced treatment standpoint. To help educate people, residents were taken out to the sites where they received education and training as to what the systems looked like, how much space they take up, and how they function.”
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PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISAND |
| George Loomis (right) watches as instructor David Burnham digs the outlet side of a septic tank to be assessed. |
The Center is operated in partnership with over 40 private-sector contractors, the RI Department of Environmental Management, the RI Independent Contractors and Associates, the USEPA and others. Before the center was up and running in the early 1990s, there was a lot of cooperation between the various agencies involved. “A lot of people volunteered time and money to bring this center about. There were some issues with areas in the state becoming closed to shell-fishing because of problems believed to be caused largely by septic systems,” says Jobin, “As a result there was a great deal of interest at the state level in such a center. There are also many coastal communities in Rhode Island that are highly seasonal and that have expensive homes. When concerns arose, these residents also became a driving factor in getting the demonstration systems and projects up and going.”
Sewers in the state’s southern reaches are generally not affordable. “When existing septic systems began to fail, the state started permitting the use of newer innovative systems,” says David Kalen, the center’s Program Manager. “The problems with nitrates and eutrophication in the salt ponds with their accompanying fish kills have made such attempts critical. Not only nitrogen problems but also bacteriological problems have led to the closing of certain areas to shell-fishing as well as some beaches to bathers. Thus the state has been at the forefront of innovative septic systems.”
The state of Rhode Island has several critical resource areas that have a great deal of pressure on them for increased construction or building. Its salt pond areas in the southern part of the state are particularly sensitive and have had pollution problems in the past.
The innovative and alternative systems at the OWTC facility are based upon proven technologies, some of which are specifically designed to minimize nutrient and or microbial loading to ground and surface waters. They also consist of systems currently approved by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management as well as systems with a strong potential for being included the state’s new septic system regulations.
Education Program at the Center
The Cooperative Extension staff conducts about eighty percent of in-field and classroom training at the OWTC. Some private sector, state, and federal cooperating agencies and other groups contribute to a large degree in their respective areas of expertise. Detailed workshop training modules cover each topic featured in field demonstrations. Individuals from regulatory agencies, septic system designers, system installers, septic contractors, health officials, real estate agents and inspectors, municipal officials, and even homeowner groups take courses at the center.
A large component of training at the center focuses on operation as well as maintenance and inspection of septic systems as properly maintained systems minimize water quality degradation. Some of the courses include: Bottomless Sand Filter Design and Installation; Conventional Onsite Wastewater Treatment Basics; Hands-on Component Installation Techniques; Effluent Pumps and Control Panels; Innovation and Alternative Technology Overview; Sand Media Specifics; Septic Tank Design and Construction; Conventional Septic Inspection Procedures; and Maintenance and Inspection Procedures.
Kalen is now in charge of what he terms the main bread-and-butter of the program—the courses that are taught at the center. These include required courses that are taught to onsite wastewater treatment professionals. The state mandates that onsite professionals must take courses on a regular basis. “We have a very strong program in the state that is pretty tight-knit with the regulatory agency and with the designers,” says Kalen. Most of the designers come to URI to fulfill their requirements for CEUs (Continuing Education Units) for license renewal purposes.
When Kalen first started, the center had a number of standard courses. But then, as years went by, new courses had to be continually added. This is mostly because the state does not want its designers simply taking the same course over and over for credit. “It’s a real challenge to help them fulfill that state requirement and a challenge to provide new courses for them,” says Kalen.
Among the functions that the center provides, work on training classes and community onsite demonstration projects takes up the bulk of Kalen’s time. “It takes a long time to develop a new course,” says Kalen. “That is in addition to our ongoing research and onsite wastewater treatment demonstration projects, which still involve ongoing testing and outreach education to communities.”
On a new grant project, Kalen is in the process of designing eight system repairs that will be submitted to the state for approval. These systems will be for group homes coordinated by Rhode Island’s Department of Mental Health. “Those systems fail so quickly that the state is spending a lot of money on these repairs,” says Kalen. “Group homes traditionally have a clientele that consumes a lot of water and produces a lot of organic matter with food grinders. They also do a lot of showering and laundry in this institutional setting. As a result the systems readily fail. We’re experimenting with a new technology that is added to the conventional system that shows some promise to renovate the existing dispersal area so they don’t have to construct a new drain field. This is promising technology, and we’re interested in investigating how well it will work for us. ”
One of the most popular courses at the center is the one that is given for those individuals interested in becoming septic inspectors. “Our ‘Inspection 100’ class is probably our most practical and fun class to deliver,” says Kalen. “It is partly indoors for one full day and then one full day outdoors. We perform two ‘blind’ inspections using the state-sanctioned septic system inspection procedure. We locate two septic tanks, inspect and pump them out, and evaluate their condition. People passing the mandatory test are placed on a NEOWTC registration list of conventional septic system inspectors. The registration list is used by communities which will then accept these people as septic inspectors.”
The center has now started teaching a spin-off of this course, Inspection 200, which is a service provider training course. Successful completion of that course gets participants on a registration list to become innovative and alternative system service providers, as all of the alterative technologies in Rhode Island require operation and maintenance at least once a year.
“For me, at least, those two courses are the most rewarding,” says Kalen. “People are coming to learn and receive practical training that will help them in their careers and get them on the registration list. They have to know the material, and they are very focused and have an immediate incentive to learn.”
The Relationships with Private Industry
The center makes it a point to work cooperatively with private industry and regulatory agencies alike. Typically, vendors do not teach classes at OWTC workshops.
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PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISAND |
| Participants in the Inspection 100 course practice their pumping skills. |
“On the demonstration projects we have taken some of the technologies that were currently seeking approval from the Department of Environmental Management and integrated them into our demonstration projects to generate more performance information,” says Kalen. “The private industry often awarded us educational discounts on equipment to help stretch our grant dollars. We’re not demonstrating a vendor’s product directly, but we’re demonstrating that a technology is a viable option for use in Rhode Island.”
The Rhode Island Independent Contractors and Associates has partnered with the center to install the 56 different innovative alternative demonstration systems.
Members of the contractors organization that participated in the installations received experience in how to install these systems.
As a result, they were more comfortable about bidding on these type of systems when they became approved for use.
Green Hill Pond Watershed and the Block Island Projects
One of the main projects that the NEOWT Center works on is the Block Island and Green Hill Pond Watershed National Community Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Demonstration project. This four-year project ending in 2006 was administered by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The Green Hill Pond watershed not only faces problems posed by development pressure but, because of soil and other natural features, experiences movement of pollution into the Pond and underlying groundwater.
Most of the older homes, built before the current septic system standards, were constructed on excessively drained soils. Charlestown is the first community to establish a grant program for low-to-moderate income residents to replace or repair outdated or failing systems.
The town is also implementing a well testing program, an educational outreach program, and has an ordinance requiring regular inspections and pumping.
South Kingstown, also part of the Green Hill Pond watershed, has aggressively pursued wetland buffer zoning and requires the use of advanced onsite wastewater treatment systems for development in critical wetland buffer zones. The town is also pushing an education program through brochures and other materials on the importance of septic system maintenance for homeowners. An ordinance requiring regular inspections and repair or replacement of systems when necessary (to be phased in over seven years), has also been passed in South Kingstown.
The New Shoreham component of the project is located on Block Island, a 9.7-square-mile island whose waters are limited and vulnerable to contamination. Block Island is a popular Ecotourism destination, and so the quality of the water is very important to the local economy. The population’s annual fluctuations cause problems with wastewater management. In the fall of 1996, New Shoreham approved an ordinance creating an island-wide wastewater management district and regulations requiring regular septic system inspections. In the fall of 1998, performance standards for onsite systems were approved. These standards established requirements for tank improvements throughout the island, and treatment standards requiring the use of advanced treatment systems in critical areas.
Building on Block Island presents unique challenges for its developers. Access to the island is possible only by an hour-long ferry trip. “It is very expensive to move materials to the island,” says Jobin. “We really had to think ‘modular unit’—something that could be thrown in the back of a pickup truck—for this project.”
Thus some of the drainfield options on the Block Island project were bottomless peat filters that were pre-packaged. They could be installed right into the ground. Some modular textile units were also used at this site and they could also be put right into the ground, so this way there was no worry about transporting large units.
These units use only smaller fiberglass tanks. On some of them, the fiberglass tank comes in two parts so they can be taken apart and transported by pickup truck and then driven right onto the ferry. Being lightweight makes them easy to move around.
“Some of the lots on the island were very tight and have quite a slope, and you have to use some creativity in getting equipment onto the sites,” says Jobin. “Big concrete tanks are challenging in that type of setting. Essentially the site constraints dictated which technology to use.
“There was a lot of thought and evaluation put into why a particular technology was used on a particular site and which technology is best,” says Jobin. “Problems on the island included high water tables, poor soils, protection of a highly limited aquifer and some extremely small lots.”
As far as interest in the various demonstration projects, Jobin finds that interest in the bottomless sand filter septic systems is high because this is a drainfield option that is quite flexible and site friendly. Visitors from out of state are interested in this leach field option consisting of a filter encased in landscape timbers that has very specific sand media. After tank storage and pretreatment, the wastewater is pressure-dosed on top of the sand and trickles down to enter into the native soil. The sand filtering is the third step in the treatment.
Attempting to Meet the Challenge
“I think our most meaningful achievement as a center has been working with our partnering organizations and agencies to both deliver training and to construct those 56 different demonstration systems,” says Loomis. “Looking at the big picture for our state, wastewater management is a big issue. I think operation and maintenance are critical factors that need to be handled effectively, and we are always challenged by ways of creating new, effective, worthwhile training for our clientele.”
Rhode Islanders remain challenged by their wastewater treatment needs. According to a 2002 water quality report done by the state, 34% of assessed rivers, 22% of assessed lakes and 30% of estuarine waters are considered to be impaired by water pollution and are actually unable to support designated uses.
A leading cause of the pollution is cesspool discharge and substandard or failing septic systems. In the same year of the report, more than 17,000 acres of this tiny state’s salt ponds, tidal rivers and coastal embayments specifically designated for shellfish harvesting, were conditionally or permanently closed—the result, in part, to contaminated stormwater runoff and leachate from septic systems. The University of Rhode Island’s New England Onsite Wastewater Training Center is working hard to make sure that new water quality data show better results.
PETER HILDEBRANDT is a writer specializing in science and engineering topics.
OW - March/April 2006 |
