Ever been on a tour of a septic sewer system? Quite delightful, let me tell you. Here at Lotan, their sewer system consists of septic tanks and constructed wetlands, which are both environmentally friendly and harness the power of nature to breakdown contaminants.
Constructed wetlands are super awesome – basically man's version of a marsh or swamp, which act as an amazing natural filter for wastewater. Here's a diagram:
Basically what happens is wastewater flows in and percolates through a series of rocks, gravel, and hydroponic plants (water plants). These components produce micro-organisms that feed off of the contaminated water, breaking it down and removing the pollutants. By the time the water reaches the end, it's clean! Pretty cool stuff, that whole nature thing. From there, you can either pump the clean water to your garden or another wetland, depending on what you prefer.
 |
| A diagram of a horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland system. It starts on the right with the person, ends on the left with the tree! (Click picture to enlarge) |
 |
| Learning about the constructed wetland! |
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Constructed wetland |
Jessi - I appreciate how you've explained the system so concisely. Alex
ReplyDelete