Justin Mechell

Speaking the same language: A glossary for the decentralized wastewater treatment field

Onsite/decentralized terminology originated and evolved on the state or regional level in conjunction with regulatory or Agricultural Engineering Extension activities. Adapting terminology from one locale to match that used in another is increasingly cumbersome since resources originally developed to address local issues and inform consumers are now shared nationally. Significant advances from proprietary and academic research and development have resulted in a wide range of treatment options and best management practices in use nation wide. Several national initiatives are also underway to standardize industry practices, but inconsistent terminology is a barrier to acceptance of nationally-developed training materials and guidance documents. Ever-increasing interaction among industry sectors across the country now dictates the use of consistent vocabulary.

Evaluating Pressurization Time and Application Uniformity for Residential Drip Fields

In order to evaluate drip zone configurations with respect to distribution uniformity, a field-scale experiment was set up and three drip tubing products were tested in different dosing and operation schemes. Three factors of wastewater drip system design were tested. System operation pressure (138 kPa and 276 kPa); different pressure control schemes (usage of pressure regulator/recirculation valve/continuous flushing/intermittent flushing); and supply line length (7.6 m, 15.2 m and 30.4 m) were evaluated to compare their influence on water application uniformity. It was concluded that, for Geoflow PC and NPC products, among all three factors, system operational pressure has the greatest effect on drip system application uniformity; supply line length has the least influence. For Netafim PC tubing, pressure control scheme has the greatest effect on drip system application uniformity; supply line length has the least influence. The optimal combination of the three factors could save more than 10 minutes of dosing time to meet the required distribution application uniformity. Drip zone dose time under required application uniformity was computed on the layout of different runs per lateral.

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE SERVICE PROVIDER PROGRAM

The Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Service Provider Program is being established to set standards of using best practices for onsite wastewater treatment system service visits. The focus of these materials is single-family residential systems. Through routine service visits and proper maintenance, onsite wastewater treatment systems are a permanent and effective part of our wastewater treatment infrastructure.