Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Joan Vibert <joan@windwalkerfarm.com>]

Title: Re: [Livingontheland] sewage systems

I was just on-line googling for technical information on the construction.  Ours was based on Bill Wolverton’s work but his book, Growing Clean Water, is now out of print.  I sold the county and the state on trying these as an alternative to sewage lagoons (their “treatment” choice).  However, the state over-designed ours because they really had no clue what to do.  We would like to rebuild ours more to the original specifications that Wolverton designed but I’m not finding much on line.  I’ll have to go back to the old documents that I have from him in the early 90’s.

Ours is about 17’ x 50’ according to the plans.  It has a pond liner that covers the bottom and sides.  This is covered with 12” to 14” of 1” gravel.  The gravel was filled with water to about a 12” depth and the plants were inserted into the gravel with their roots covered with water.  The plants were spaced 24” apart and we used: (10)water iris, (10)yellow iris, (100)sweet flag, & (50) pickerel plant.  These were purchased from Wildlife Nurseries in Oshkosh, WI.  We did research to see what plants would do well in our area (East Central Kansas).  Enough of these have been built by now to have some good designs out there – I just haven’t found them.

Our household sewage and greywater go into a septic tank first – that was a state requirement.  They also called out an absorption bed that actually never had any water in it because the marsh was too big in our opinion.  We want to relocate it and rebuild according to the specs from Wolverton which call for a much narrower design that moves the waste along quicker.  Something in the range of 3’ to 5’ wide and longer.  

These systems have one down side and that is that they must be cleaned every year.  The weeds get in and really take over sometimes.  The cleaning time falls right when we are planting and often falls through the cracks.  I don’t see that the weeds themselves have hurt the system at all.  The whole thing works based on the microbes on the roots of the plants that digest the waste so it seems to me that any plants that act as hosts for the microbes will suffice.

My husband, Jim, can expound on this (and no doubt correct my faulty memory) if you want more info.  We have files full of information on this – they are all from the early 90’s but should still be relevant.  Its weird but I cannot find any regs that KDHE actually wrote on the systems but they are legal in Kansas.

Joan Vibert
Windwalker Farm
Ottawa, Kansas

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From: Emery Mitchamore <emitch@att.net>
Reply-To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2010 14:56:26 -0500
To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] sewage systems

The EXPLANATION was over-simplistic, not the system.  I've heard of it, I've googled it, I've seen pictures.  What I HAVE NOT seen is an explanation of how it's done.  How does one determine the size, materials, plants?  The plants must grow, so how do you harvest them, and what do you do with them?  The growth medium must need to be of a certain type and size to prevent clogging, and I imagine that some combinations of "rock" and plants work better than others.  Surely, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well, but I'd rather not have to invent this thing all by myself, when it has already been done successfully.

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.net <http://www.hillcountrynatives.net> 



On Jun 8, 2010, at 12:14 PM, Joan Vibert wrote:

> "Plants purify the water" is a bit over-simplistic. 
>
> Actually its not “over-simplistic” at all.  We’ve had a marsh (rock-plant-filter) system since 1994 that handles all of our sewage on our farm.  We were the second system to go in in Kansas and they used the information collected over several years to write the regulations for the Kansas Department of Health & Environment.  This required monthly testing for at least two years as I recall.  It was amazing – the water at the end of our marsh (its about 12’ x 60’) was 99% pure according to the testing lab.  Actually purer than our drinking water I’m sure.
>
> The same system should be used wherever possible for municipal sewage treatment – its so simple and I’m sure that’s why it doesn’t get considered – it just doesn’t cost enough and cuts out lots of engineers expenses.
>
> Joan Vibert
> Windwalker Farm
> Ottawa, Kansas 
> _______________________________________________
> Livingontheland mailing list
> Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland

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