Wastewater Treatment and Living Machines
Saturday May 3rd 2008 | 9:00 am-12:00pm
Presented by Andrew Hellebust, P.Eng, Rivercourt Engineering Inc
- Andrew Hellebust's Presentation pdf
- Grand House water system pdf
- Video footage of the workshop - coming soon
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| Wastewater Treatment and Living Machines |
The Grand House Cooperative welcomed Andrew Hellebust to the workshop series to discuss his expertise in creating wastewater treatment systems and living machines.
Andrew worked as part of Living Technologies and Ecowerks before heading off on his own to found Rivercourt Engineering, specializing in constructed wetlands, wastewater treatment systems for public works such as wineries, public schools, factories and others that reside outside of municipal sewage jurisdiction.
Many of the attendees noted that they were interested in this information for construction of their own personal homes.
Andrew touched on building code requirements, noting that the code has changed from a prescriptive format to an objective based format that can allow some argument for alternative wastewater treatment systems. Although the code does not expressly allow certain systems, arguments can be made that will allow homeowners to be able to install alternative systems such as greywater for flushing of toilets and laundry on a case by case basis. Andrew touched on commercial market systems such as BRAC and other filtering systems.
The use of trickle filter systems, Waterloo Biofilters, Ecoflow, and other tertiary treatment systems were discussed and described visually. Conventional flush toilets as well as composting toilets were discussed. The main focus of discussion around wastewater treatment and these systems was the energy required to treat water. The fact that potable water is being treated and used in toilets is a practice that requires a large amount of energy and resources to be expended where other ‘alternative’ systems could just as easily and safely work without nearly the same energy or resources cost.
Rainwater was discussed for both re-use in greywater systems as well as treatment for potable water use.
Construction of the Grand House system was featured and participants received a hand-out showing the system diagram.
Wetland construction and living machine systems were discussed with Andrew using past case studies such as the Kortright Centre for Conservation, Toronto Waldorf School, Valley View Public school, Riverstone, and Everdale Learning Centre.
