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  • From: Tommy Tolson <healinghawk@earthlink.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Shit
  • Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:36:14 -0500

dwoodard@becon.org wrote:
I have been told by those who experimented with built wetlands in the
Niagara Peninsula of Ontario several years ago that the effluent is close
to drinking water standards. They cannot handle industrial sewage, only
residential.
The gravel used to absorb phsophate has to be renewed every 50-100 years.
It can be used as fertilizer.

Maybe there is more than one type of built wetland? These people used the
term "artificial marsh."

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada

******************************
My understanding of a built wetlands is a normal septic tank with a pump installed in the second chamber. When the contents are high enough, they are pumped into a rock and reed bed. Reedy plants pull nutrients from the water, leaving it pretty clean, then it runs out into a pond situation where it supports wildlife and perhaps agriculture. I've heard, too, that water coming out of the r&r bed is near drinking quality. Some build greenhouses over the r&r beds to keep the reeds growing all year in colder areas. But there's still the septic tank to be dealt with. /Solviva/, I think, talked of flushing toilets into a worm box, from which the water came out clean. That seems better than a septic system, but I don't see many places allowing a permit to build such a thing under the current system.

Tommy Tolson
Austin, TX





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