Promoting Smart Growth with Wastewater Management

1
Promoting Smart Growth with Wastewater
Management

• Optimizing Conservation and Growth with
  Wastewater Management Strategies

2
In the past

• Sewer Avoidance was a common municipal strategy
  or goal in the 1980s and 1990s.
• It sometimes led to towns avoiding appropriate
  solutions for neighborhoods under the guise of
  growth control.
• Towns viewed Sewer Avoidance as a do-nothing
  strategy that would cost them nothing, and get
  DEP off their backs.

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No Effort No Control

• Towns eventually found that do-nothing
  strategies often led to a loss of control of how
  the community developed.
• Without adequate staffing and management, towns
  had no basis to reject or modify proposals for
  development.
• Economic pressures allowed piecemeal development
  to occur.

4
The Smart Growth Approach

• The Goal To create and maintain communities that
  blend open space desires and social needs in
  harmony.
• The Strategy
• First create the vision,
• Then create a plan to get there,
• Finally, be prepared to pay the cost.

5
How Does Wastewater Management Fit ?

• Water supply and wastewater disposal are limiting
  factors.
• Site conditions have limited the density of
  development in some areas.
• Onsite Management and Decentralized Wastewater
  Management Districts are the wastewater
  strategies currently being developed in CT
  communities.

6
Wastewater Technology Nothing has Changed!

• Wastewater Treatment is still accomplished the
  same way micro-organisms break down complex
  molecules into simpler ones.
• The numerous technologies available today have
  shrunk the size of the treatment units.
• Problem the smaller the system, the more
  vulnerable it is to sudden variations in flow
  that may upset the treatment process.

7
Alternative Technology

• What is Alternative Technology?
• Whos regulating it?
• Do we need AT in order to use Smart Growth
  strategies?

8
The Statutory Definition

• Alternative sewage treatment system is defined
  as a system serving one or more buildings on one
  property which utilizes a method of treatment
  other than a subsurface sewage disposal system
  and which involves a discharge to the ground
  waters of the state. (C.G.S. 7-245(2))

9
Alternative Technology

• Scaled-down versions of conventional treatment
  plants.
• Treatment is accomplished in the black box
  rather than in the soil.
• The soil is still needed for dispersal of the
  effluent.

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Performance and Reliability

• Current data review indicates these systems are
  capable of high levels of treatment with proper
  design, installation, operation and maintenance
• These systems are permitted in conjunction with
  soil absorption systems designed for additional
  treatment for nutrients and pathogens
• Ground water monitoring results indicate water
  quality standards are achieved

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Another Statutory Definition

• A community sewerage system is defined as any
  sewerage system serving two or more residences in
  separate structures which is not connected to a
  municipal sewerage system or which is connected
  to a municipal sewerage system as a distinct and
  separately managed district or segment of such
  system. (C.G.S. 7-245 (3))

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Regulatory Jurisdiction
Subsurface Sewage Disposal System Alternative Sewage Treatment System Community Sewerage system (may be either conventional or AT)
gt5,000 gallons per day DEP DEP DEP
gt2,000 gallons per day and lt5,000 gallons per day DPH reviews and approves Local Dept of Health issues permits to construct and discharge DEP (June S.S., P.A. 07-01, Sec. 155, allows DPH jurisdiction for AT) DEP (June S.S., P.A. 07-01, Sec. 155, allows DPH jurisdiction for AT)
lt 2,000 gallons per day with trained staff Local Dept of Health reviews, approves, and issues permits to construct and discharge DEP (June S.S., P.A. 07-01, Sec. 155, allows DPH jurisdiction for AT) DEP (June S.S., P.A. 07-01, Sec. 155, allows DPH jurisdiction for AT)
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Types of AT Systems approved in CT

• Zenon membrane bioreactor
• Bioclere trickling filter
• FAST submerged media activated sludge
• Recirculating sand filter
• Rotating biological contactor
• Activated sludge
• Extended aeration

• Sequencing batch reactor (Amphidrome or other)
• White Knight aeration biological enhancement
• Kubota membrane filtration
• Fluidyne ISAM
• Chromaglass
• All approvals are SITE SPECIFIC, not blanket
  approvals of technology.

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Types of facilities using AT systems

• Residential communities
• Schools
• Restaurants
• Shopping plazas/malls
• Office buildings
• Marinas

• Grocery stores
• Hospitals
• Convalescent homes
• Assisted living
• Hotels
• Recreational facilities

15
Use of AT Systems in CT

• 22 systems installed for repair/ upgrade of
  existing failing or malfunctioning systems
• 34 systems proposed or installed for new
  development
• 2 systems installed for municipal use
• 3 towns investigating use of decentralized
  wastewater management districts which would
  potentially include AT systems for household and
  small commercial use
• Alternative on-site sewage treatment system
  prohibited in public water supply watersheds (CGS
  22a-430) with some exceptions (i.e. schools,
  repairs)

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Does Smart Growth Need AT ?

• Availability of suitable land for wastewater
  treatment and/or effluent dispersal is critical.
• Water conservation and creative re-use of treated
  effluent may reduce needed acreage, but wont
  eliminate site constraints completely.

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QUESTIONS ?