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The Technology & Legal Compliance
The use of wetlands to treat effluent is not a new idea. But in recent decades, wetland scientists have deepened our understanding of how natural wetlands function and provided the basis for the design of constructed wetlands which put these systems to effective work solving environmental problems.
WASTEWATER GARDENS® sewage treatment system was initially developed in the Biosphere 2 Test Module in 1987, and then put to full test in the world renowned first large scale global ecology and closed systems laboratory experimental facility (1.2 hectares, 3 acre), BIOSPHERE 2, in Arizona, during its first years of closure experiments from 1991 to 1994. The WWG system was designed in conjunction with NASA scientists and managed/researched by Dr. Mark Nelson, a member of the eight person Biosphere 2 crew. The wetland wastewater treatment system purified all sewage water (from laboratories, workshops, human residences, laundry, animals and agricultural operations.). The cycle of water being extremely accelerated within Biosphere2, the water had to be effectively treated and recycled in a healthy,
ecological manner in order for this mini biosphere and its inhabitants to function well.
After leaving Biosphere 2, Dr. Mark Nelson, in collaboration with the Planetary Coral Reef Foundation (PCRF) and the Institute of Ecotechnics and working with the eminent systems ecologist, H.T. Odum of the Center for Wetlands at the University of Florida, further refined the WWG design to make it adaptable and available for application worldwide, in a wide diversity of ecosystems.
Legal Requirements
Subsurface flow wetlands have been reviewed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the European Health authorities and various other countries' agencies, and meet their wastewater standards. WWG technology has been proven to be far more effective, affordable & long-lasting than conventional sewage treatment system and is so designed as to use only 1/5 of the area of open surface wetlands, while its high biodiversity raises constructed wetlands to a complete ecological system.
While the ability of WWG for water decontamination often exceeds local Health Authority treatment requirements, when even higher treatment than normal municipal standards is required for special purposes, an increase in wetland area or use of vertical flow wetland design can provide the equivalent of advanced water treatment.
However, regulatory guidelines differing markedly from country to country, even within countries (local governing bodies having already greater or lesser familiarity with constructed wetlands such as Wastewater Gardens®), education of local health department officials is often required before permission to implement them is granted in some regions.
In the decade after Biosphere 2, WASTEWATER GARDENS® have been installed in the US, the Philippines, Mexico, Indonesia, Europe, Belize, the Bahamas and Australia.
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