Innovative Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems
A top goal of the La Pine
project is to install and assess how well innovative on-site sewage
treatment systems work. We are most interested in those systems that
will reduce the amount of nitrogen entering the groundwater from
residential sewage. And, because most of the residents in the South
Deschutes County area have individual domestic drinking water wells, the
project team wants to identify and promote on-site systems that protect
the groundwater. To support this, the project team sought manufacturers
and designers of innovative technologies from across the country and
internationally to play a part in a test program. These new systems will
be installed on volunteer residents' properties and tested intensively
for about three years. We plan to use the information from this test
program to decide which systems work the best in the difficult South
County conditions. The results will have an impact on how sewage from
single-family homes will be dealt with statewide.
Year 2000 Construction
Season:
We worked with 23 property owners
during the first round of the innovative on-site sewage treatment
systems program. Deschutes County contracted with four local installers
to help with the installations. The manufacturers of two of the
innovative systems hired two other local installers for the installation
of their systems. The first systems went in the ground in early
September 2000 and installation continued through early December 2000.
We could not install five of the innovative systems that fall due to
weather and other difficulties. These installations were postponed until the
spring of 2001.
What Else?
We installed nine control systems (3 standard, 3 pressure distribution
and 3 sand filter systems) to test at the same time that we are testing
the innovative systems. We are using these systems to develop good data
on how well these commonly used systems perform. We are also sampling
the groundwater below several existing standard drainfield systems to
determine how well a mature system functions. The data we get from these
two efforts will help support the three-dimensional groundwater model
that we are developing as a part of the grant project.
Year 2001
Construction Season:
We worked with 27 property owners
during the second round of the program. Deschutes County contracted with
eight vendors and designers for 10 new types of systems to install in
addition to completing the installation of the systems that were
postponed from the previous fall.. The
first of these systems went in the ground in early September and
installation continued through early December. Nine of the innovative
systems were left to install in the spring of 2002.
Year 2002
Construction Season:
We installed nine of the innovative
systems in the spring and summer. No more installations or
requests for proposals are planned. The total number of sites
installed is 49, 9 of which are control systems, 40 of which are
innovative dentrifying systems or designs.
What's Next?
Field monitoring and water quality sampling for
the innovative on-site sewage treatment
systems ended in December 2004. Final results on the performance
of all the systems is forthcoming. The performance data and
statistics for some of those systems that have already completed the
monitoring cycle are posted on the individual pages available in the
column at the right.
The performance of the systems participating in the La
Pine Project are summarized in the ranking charts in the column to the
right.
Deschutes County will use the results of the
field test and the three-dimensional groundwater and nutrient fate and
transport model to develop an action plan to protect the groundwater
quality in the La Pine sub-basin. The county has already begun a
program to divert development away from the sensitive area and future
programs may require the use of denitrifying onsite systems to minimize
pollution inputs to the aquifer. The county is also working on
augmenting the loan fund begun by the La Pine Project to replace or
retrofit existing systems with denitrifying systems or components.
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Participating
Vendors and Designers
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Reactor
Dynamics, Inc.,
Dyno2™ System
-
MicroSepTec,
Inc.,
EnviroServer 600
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Bio-Microbics,
Inc.,
FAST® System
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Advanced
Environmental Systems, Inc.,
IDEA BESTEP system
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Wert
and Associates,
Innovative Trench Designs
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Consolidated
Treatment Systems, Inc.,
Nayadic® System
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On
Site
Wastewater Management, LLC,
NiteLess System
-
Lombardo
Associates Inc.,
NITREX™ Filter
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Bord
na Mona,
Puraflo® System
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Control
Systems
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