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Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling
Water has been described as the twenty-first-century oil. Water shortages, water quality, and water rights are hot-button issues at the local, national, and international levels. Climate change, population growth, and contamination from industry, farms, and human settlements have dramatically impacted water supplies and disrupted natural nutrient cycles. Strategic wastewater management will be a critical tool in protecting this valuable but threatened resource. Reusing the Resource is a comprehensive guide to using plants to stabilize, clean, filter, and reuse wastewater, while simultaneously eliminating expensive and polluting sewers and septic systems. The book profiles more than thirty successful ecological wastewater recycling systems that save money, protect public and environmental health, and provide plant-based fuel, fiber, construction materials, habitat, and landscapes. It details the pros and cons of various systems and provides tips for designers, regulators, and builders. Case studies • A greenhouse-enclosed wastewater aquaculture system
• A regional wastewater-recycling plant
• A city’s wastewater-treatment wetland
• Graywater planters and more This book is a must-read for engineers, landscape designers, clean water advocates, and property owners. Packed with practical ideas and featuring beautiful full-color photos and inspiring, easy-to-read information, Reusing the Resource proves that the solution to water pollution is to grow it away! Carol Steinfeld is a writer, researcher, and program designer who specializes in ecological resource management solutions. David Del Porto is an ecological planner and consultant with a focus on integrated water conservation, stormwater, and wastewater reuse. Together they have co-authored two books on wastewater management.
• A regional wastewater-recycling plant
• A city’s wastewater-treatment wetland
• Graywater planters and more This book is a must-read for engineers, landscape designers, clean water advocates, and property owners. Packed with practical ideas and featuring beautiful full-color photos and inspiring, easy-to-read information, Reusing the Resource proves that the solution to water pollution is to grow it away! Carol Steinfeld is a writer, researcher, and program designer who specializes in ecological resource management solutions. David Del Porto is an ecological planner and consultant with a focus on integrated water conservation, stormwater, and wastewater reuse. Together they have co-authored two books on wastewater management.
124 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2007
22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 4, 2011
Abundantly illustrated book with reserves of imagination.
The four first chapters expose the principles of wastewater reuse % recycling.
1. Its only wastewater if it's wasted! The large problematic of the ecological consequences of our water use are reviewed with easy to grasp schematics.
2. Principles of ecological wastewater recycling Some useful revision, for the layman-woman.
3. Know the flows (separating the grey waters from the "brown" sanitary waters. And did you know that urine is composed of nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), the fertilizer ingredients! As much as 90 % of the mass of P in the domestic waste-waters comes from the urine. Conversely, the world reserve of phosphate rocks, from which we derive most fertilizers, are dwindling. (Mining phosphorus for fertilizer is consuming the mineral faster than geologic cycles can replenish it.) Don't worry about oil, worry about P!
4. integrated strategies: a philosophical change must come over water use. Decentralization of recycling, treating storm water as a resource.
Chapter 5, Wastewater at work, makes for the two-thirds of the book, presenting various applications, each with pics. The author do not dwell too long on explanations, though, because each application take 1-2 pages.
Chapter 6, A resource recycling future, concludes about the "ecowater" frontier challenges waiting ahead.
All in all, an entertaining book with a lot of pics, very good on a coffee table.
If you want to sink your teeth in something more pertaining to your region or your situation -homeowner, or tenants, with or without lawn or field available area, you would be better to choose a more precise subject.
But as a first contact with the growing environmental concerns and the new and original uses of resources, it makes for a good reading.
The four first chapters expose the principles of wastewater reuse % recycling.
1. Its only wastewater if it's wasted! The large problematic of the ecological consequences of our water use are reviewed with easy to grasp schematics.
2. Principles of ecological wastewater recycling Some useful revision, for the layman-woman.
3. Know the flows (separating the grey waters from the "brown" sanitary waters. And did you know that urine is composed of nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), the fertilizer ingredients! As much as 90 % of the mass of P in the domestic waste-waters comes from the urine. Conversely, the world reserve of phosphate rocks, from which we derive most fertilizers, are dwindling. (Mining phosphorus for fertilizer is consuming the mineral faster than geologic cycles can replenish it.) Don't worry about oil, worry about P!
4. integrated strategies: a philosophical change must come over water use. Decentralization of recycling, treating storm water as a resource.
Chapter 5, Wastewater at work, makes for the two-thirds of the book, presenting various applications, each with pics. The author do not dwell too long on explanations, though, because each application take 1-2 pages.
Chapter 6, A resource recycling future, concludes about the "ecowater" frontier challenges waiting ahead.
All in all, an entertaining book with a lot of pics, very good on a coffee table.
If you want to sink your teeth in something more pertaining to your region or your situation -homeowner, or tenants, with or without lawn or field available area, you would be better to choose a more precise subject.
But as a first contact with the growing environmental concerns and the new and original uses of resources, it makes for a good reading.
Want to Read
September 13, 2017It is clear that the answer is not more cleanup at the end of sewage pipe. A more strategic and integrated solution is called for based on a broad approach: prevent pollution, conserve water, use water and diverse water sources, keep constituents separate at their sources, recycle and use organics, water, heat, water and nutrients.
The High cost of disposal is prompting a reframing of the wastewater challenge. Instead of creating waste, a better strategy is needed to put these outputs to use, just as they are in nature`s model.
In balanced ecosystems there is no waste. The outputs of one organism are the inputs of another.
What would an ecosystem do?
1. Increase cycling and reduce leaking of material and energy outside the cycles. Keep cycles tight and local.
2. Increase energy capture and flow. Outputs of one organism are inputs of another.
3. Optimize efficiencies.
4. Diversify functions and resources and integrate them.
Treating wastewater involves destroying pathogens, reducing BOD, filtering out particles, reducing or using up N and P, and stabilising or disposing of toxins. All of this happens faster in constructed ecosystems than in conventional treatment systems. In a septic tank, wastewater is often not treated, it is just settled. Pathogens, toxins, and N still drain from the tank into the leach field gravel bed 2-6 ft underground and into the soil, where some treatment occurs.
Key advantage of the aerobic zone is there is more O2 present there. Aerobic bacteria transform and stabilize wastewater 10-20 times faster than anaerobic bacteria that do not use atmospheric O2.
Another advantage of the biological zone is that it can support plants. They establish root zone - rhizoplane where the real transformation occurs.
Constructed ecosystems are self-organizing and adaptive, providing responsive treatment that adapts to varying wastewater strengths and climate changes. Wastewater is usually warm and microbial action generates heat, so treatment might slow during cold seasons but it rarely if ever stops.
In surface-flow constructed wetlands -free flowing or surface water wetlands, water flows on the top of the wetland. These wetlands enhance both evaporation and aeration. Wetland is designed so water flows fast enough.
With subsurface flow constructed wetlands, water flows 3-8 inches under the wetland surface.
To reduce BOD, aerobic process work the best.
Many wetlands fail because the substrate is too small, causing clogging.
As this landscape-based approach replaces the current plumbing approach to wastewater management, constructed ecosystems will be commonly called on to clean effluents as well as provide valuable plant products and beautiful landscapes.
An organizing principle of life on the planet is ecosystem. It works optimally when energy and material flows are kept cycling through, so the outputs of one part of the system are inputs of another. Energy and resources stay in the system, producing no waste, and they do not have far to travel. Ecological systems are self-organizing, according to specifics of their resources bases.
Term ecological engineering was first coined by Howard Odum, professor of systems ecology in 1962. "those cases where the energy supplied by man is small relative to the natural sources but sufficient to produce large effects in the resulting processes and patterns."
Managing water in human communities to sustain the highest quality of life for the lowest cost works the best by using an ecological engineering model based on the ecological paradigm.
When Plants Pollute? How WW derived nutrients can cause aquatic pollution?
When nutrients in WW, usually from human excreta are discharged or leach into the ponds, lakes streams or seas, the effects is like pouring fertilizer into the water. Nutrient balance is upset, resulting in proliferation of organic matter, aquatic plants (phytoplankton, algae). These plants, as they live and ultimately die, use O2 in water. This can upset O2 balance and deprive other aquatic life of necessary O2. State of low O2 is called hypoxia. A pond choked with algae is evidence of fertilizer - N and P - in the wrong place.
N pollution is considered major environmental and economic threat. N is nutrient that causes most problem in the saltwater. In freshwater, P is limiting nutrient. Both are nutrients of concern, and should be put to grow food, fuel and fiber not ecological liabilities.
The High cost of disposal is prompting a reframing of the wastewater challenge. Instead of creating waste, a better strategy is needed to put these outputs to use, just as they are in nature`s model.
In balanced ecosystems there is no waste. The outputs of one organism are the inputs of another.
What would an ecosystem do?
1. Increase cycling and reduce leaking of material and energy outside the cycles. Keep cycles tight and local.
2. Increase energy capture and flow. Outputs of one organism are inputs of another.
3. Optimize efficiencies.
4. Diversify functions and resources and integrate them.
Treating wastewater involves destroying pathogens, reducing BOD, filtering out particles, reducing or using up N and P, and stabilising or disposing of toxins. All of this happens faster in constructed ecosystems than in conventional treatment systems. In a septic tank, wastewater is often not treated, it is just settled. Pathogens, toxins, and N still drain from the tank into the leach field gravel bed 2-6 ft underground and into the soil, where some treatment occurs.
Key advantage of the aerobic zone is there is more O2 present there. Aerobic bacteria transform and stabilize wastewater 10-20 times faster than anaerobic bacteria that do not use atmospheric O2.
Another advantage of the biological zone is that it can support plants. They establish root zone - rhizoplane where the real transformation occurs.
Constructed ecosystems are self-organizing and adaptive, providing responsive treatment that adapts to varying wastewater strengths and climate changes. Wastewater is usually warm and microbial action generates heat, so treatment might slow during cold seasons but it rarely if ever stops.
In surface-flow constructed wetlands -free flowing or surface water wetlands, water flows on the top of the wetland. These wetlands enhance both evaporation and aeration. Wetland is designed so water flows fast enough.
With subsurface flow constructed wetlands, water flows 3-8 inches under the wetland surface.
To reduce BOD, aerobic process work the best.
Many wetlands fail because the substrate is too small, causing clogging.
As this landscape-based approach replaces the current plumbing approach to wastewater management, constructed ecosystems will be commonly called on to clean effluents as well as provide valuable plant products and beautiful landscapes.
An organizing principle of life on the planet is ecosystem. It works optimally when energy and material flows are kept cycling through, so the outputs of one part of the system are inputs of another. Energy and resources stay in the system, producing no waste, and they do not have far to travel. Ecological systems are self-organizing, according to specifics of their resources bases.
Term ecological engineering was first coined by Howard Odum, professor of systems ecology in 1962. "those cases where the energy supplied by man is small relative to the natural sources but sufficient to produce large effects in the resulting processes and patterns."
Managing water in human communities to sustain the highest quality of life for the lowest cost works the best by using an ecological engineering model based on the ecological paradigm.
When Plants Pollute? How WW derived nutrients can cause aquatic pollution?
When nutrients in WW, usually from human excreta are discharged or leach into the ponds, lakes streams or seas, the effects is like pouring fertilizer into the water. Nutrient balance is upset, resulting in proliferation of organic matter, aquatic plants (phytoplankton, algae). These plants, as they live and ultimately die, use O2 in water. This can upset O2 balance and deprive other aquatic life of necessary O2. State of low O2 is called hypoxia. A pond choked with algae is evidence of fertilizer - N and P - in the wrong place.
N pollution is considered major environmental and economic threat. N is nutrient that causes most problem in the saltwater. In freshwater, P is limiting nutrient. Both are nutrients of concern, and should be put to grow food, fuel and fiber not ecological liabilities.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews