From: bj368@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Mike E. Romano) Subject: Greenhouse Wastewater System Date: 23 Nov 92 04:44:22 GMT Greenhouse Wastewater System Operating Since 1990 Creater of Garfield comic strip Jim Davis hired John Todd of New Alchemy Institute to build this system especially for Davis' Garfield cartoon products company plant called Paws, located near Muncie Indiana but having no public sewers to connect to. The system purifies sewage water at the rate of 1,575 gallons per day. This treated water is used to grow horticultural plants commercially within the same greenhouse system. A variety of fauna and flora are used to process the waste water. The holding tanking pumping system forms a uniform mixture of human waste, grey water, and some kitchen waste from the dishwasher. No toxic chemicals are allowed in the plant system. The first stage pumps this waste water into two 700 gallon clear fiberglass solar tanks which allow solar exposure which in turn activate biological growth. Two types of bacteria are introduced: a grease eating bacterium and a nitrifying bacterium which then reproduce indefinitely. The nitrifying bacterium converts the ammonia and algae eat the converted nitrates, as well as the water hyacinths. The snails eat the algae. Hyacinths need to be harvested often and are converted to compost. The rest of the system is self regulating. Aeration is required at all stages and is accomplished by pumping air through plastic irrigation pipes placed at the bottom of the tanks. Cleaned water is transferred to the second set of tanks where snails, algae and bluegills con- tinue to process the waste water. After a third stage of tanks with similar ecosystem, the waste water is pumped to a lagoon 4 feet wide, 20 feet long, and 2.5 feet deep. There are sodium vapor lights above the lagoon to assist with lighting and heat. The lagoon supports: arrowhead, duckweed, black willow tree seedlings, water hyacinths. The lagoon is also stocked with Japanese koi, tropical sucker fish (Placastema), mosquito fish (Gambusia), and bluegills. >From the lagoon the water is pumped to an artificial wet- land marsh built up from 2.5 feet of 2 inch stones, overlaid with 6 inches of pea gravel, with a thin layer of water covering. This marsh area is for experimental trials of ornamental plants to be sold commercially and includes: elephant ear, reed canary grass, bulrushes, papyrus, wild aster, monkey flowers, variegated orchard grass, Japanese blood grass, wild iris, calladium, smart- weed, and angel trumpets. It takes 5 days for water to travel through the system and it is released well within purity standards; no chemicals are added to the system at any point. -- Capt. Kirk: let's head for that planet, third from the sun, it looks promising.... |-)