Distributed Wastewater Management to Support Sustainable

Urbanism in New England Villages

Juli Beth Hinds, AICP

Vermont

• Practice in integrated water resource management – water supply, wastewater & groundwater issues, watershed hydrology, stream restoration

• Member, Water Environment Research Foundation’s Decentralized Research Advisory Committee

• Member, Water Environment Federation – Small Communities Committee, US EPA’s MOU for Decentralized Wastewater System Management

• Signer, 2007 Baltimore Charter for Sustainable Water Infrastructure

On-Site Wastewater Systems are REALITY in much of New England

EXTENSIVE areas of New England…•Are NOT served by conventional sewer collection and treatment systems, •rely on individually owned and maintained on-site wastewater systems, and•Are in close proximity to important water resources: rivers, wetlands, Long Island Sound, ocean, estuaries, lakes

Lack of wastewater treatment capacity threatens:

• Property values

• Tax bases

• Density goals

• Affordable housing

• Many CNU principles!

• Community viability

• Community resilience

…it’s not so good for water quality, either.

Wolcott Property Values; Waitsfield Elementary

So what happens when you try to provide wastetwater capacity the old-fashioned way – with a sewer system?

Once there was a

village by a

flowing

river…where

happy villagers

lived in a

walkable

traditional

community.

And though their

median incomes

were at or slightly

below the USDA

guidelines for

low-moderate

projects, the

villagers loved

their general store

and their tidy

homes and school

and church…

The Villagers sold

pottery and organic

woolen socks to

tourists, who took

pictures of their

historic

marketplace.

“Suckers,” the

villagers laughed,

“I can’t believe they

spend twelve bucks

on those socks!”

…and the river water

flowed by and bore their

yuck away…

…and the villagers

were happy.

Then one day the

Old Man of the

River

(management

division) appeared

to the Villagers and

said…

How dare you foul my waters with

your yuck! You must construct a

SEWER SYSTEM

or I shall send a plague of lawyers

upon you!

The Villagers

trembled with

fear at the

dread word

SEWER, for they

knew this to be a

terrible curse

that would

bring them

strife, expense,

and long, late

meetings!

They

summoned the

Wizard of

Engineers, who

said “Fear Not!

I shall design

you a sewer

plant, dear

villagers, and

you shall not be

plagued!”

But time and change

orders passed…and then

the Wizard said:

“I can keep the plague of

lawyers from you with my

MAGIC SEWER PLANT, but

it shall cost eighteen

million dollars and ALL

villagers must pay.”

The Villagers

despaired! For

there were only

3,600 of them in

the whole town,

and their whole

village budget was

only three million

dollars each year.

“That’s 1.5 million

pairs of organic

socks!” they cried.

“hmmmm…” said

the Wizard, “If

you rezoned that

farm land out

on the highway

for a power

center, I bet

there are many

stores that would

come and THEY

could pay for the

sewer plant!”

Now the villagers were truly

miserable and began to fight.

Time Passed.

Meetings dragged on.

People shouted.

Consultants were hired.

The wizard conjured an

earmark, but it was too small,

and the bond vote too large.

The Old Man of the

River thundered, but

his words became

empty threats and he

offered no help.

The weaver of organic socks

could not expand her

weaving studio, because she

had an old septic system,

and moved away.

And the villagers were unhappy, and

the yuck flowed, and the Old Man of the

River threatened, and the Wizard

designed, and there were no more

organic socks to sell to the tourists.

And so they puzzled…

What would an affordable, 21-st century,

sustainable wastewater system look like?

One that kept their lovely village,

and let the weaver of organic socks expand her

studio, and didn’t take all their money, and

didn’t need a power center?

CONVENTIONAL SEWERS: Call it “Peak Water.”The system of taking water out of the ground, fouling

it, moving it back to a plant, using a chemical and energy-intensive process, and discharging it to a surface water (or worse: the ocean) are so 19th

century…or even Roman!Prediction: We will spend as much time and energy taking apart our sewer infrastructure to re-tool it for hydrologic as we will reusing mothballed malls and power centers. . .…many water-short places are doing it already.

Sewer mining, from UTS-Sydney

BUT HOW CAN THAT BE? DON’T WE HAVE TO HAVE A SEWER

SYSTEM TO CREATE A DENSE COMMUNITY?

NO!

Unsewered places have avoidedthe water infrastructure equivalent

of…

For sustainability and density without repeating the sad tale of the Villagers:

Find a little land for the water -On (or very near!) your site

And think of it like adding solar panels or a wind turbine to your roof – it’s PART

OF the water grid!

YOU CAN HAVE DENSITY WITHOUT:SEWER PLANTS$18 MILLION IN EARMARKS AND SUBSIDIESUNDESIRABLE GROWTH OPTIONSHYDROLOGIC DISRUPTIONSUNHAPPY VILLAGERS ORGANIC SOCK SALES (unless you really want to)

Orenco Systems

Solaire, Clerico Systems

This…

Without this.

Sustainable Water Infrastructure:Soil based, managed, and incremental

Point 1! Really Important!SOIL BASED

• Sustainability requires us to RE-HYDRATE our landscapes!

• Put treated water right back into the DIRT, let the BUGS do their thing, and RESTORE our hydrologic cycles!

• Soil microbes, like teenage boys, are dumb enough to eat anything.

URI – Block Island

Point 3! Really Important!SOIL BASED

I am not just a lawn!

I am the perfect ecological buffer between a livable human community and the soil and hydrologic cycles!

I am so totally cool!

BARRIER: AN OUTMODED IDEA OF ‘PUBLIC HEALTH’ FOCUSED ON CONTACT WITH PATHOGENS, AND LACK OF RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT – creates regulatory blocks.

Use management, technology, and natural processes to clean water, restore hydrology, and support urbanism.

URI – Block Island

Point 2: Hard for ‘Smart Growth’ to Swallow…DISTRIBUTED

• QUIT MOVING THE WATER AROUND! It is hydrologicallyand ecologically disruptive and uses enormous quantities of energy!!!

• Treat the water where the people are – regardless!

• We will steal as little of your land for density as possible by being creative with “land leftovers.”

Yarmouth, MA – use of drip irrigation in road rights-of-way

Point 2: Hard for ‘Smart Growth’ to Swallow…DISTRIBUTED

“But our sewer district that controls growth…”

• If your smart growth strategy or zoning incentivizes conventional sewer over on-site systems, prevents sewer mining, or discourages water re-use, RETHINK IT or find a new growth control tool…or else!

You’ll get a visit from the old man of the river!

Point 3:

PROPERLY MANAGED• Management programs with

professional oversight of on-site or cluster systems ensure long-term environmental performance and viability of wastewater investments

• It’s managed professionally like a sewer system - the sewer guys just make house calls!

• Strongly encouraged by US EPA as a LONG TERM solution to wastewater needs

• Who’s doing it really well? Alabama, Loudon County University of Rhode Island On-Site

Wastewater Training Center

Point 3:

PROPERLY MANAGED

BARRIER: ENABLING LAW & REQUIREMENTS FOR MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS

**In AL, TN, OK – great source of green jobs managing systems!!

University of Rhode Island On-Site Wastewater Training Center

Point 4:UTILITY FUNDED

We have only been willing to socialize the cost of wastewater treatment one way: conventional sewers.

Subsidies, earmarks, and high costs create PERVERSE INCENTIVES

Septic systems are ‘free,’ until they need a $20,000 home equity loan for replacement.

Huge need to develop funding models that fund incremental replacements, and reflect cost and VALUE of treatment

Basic principle: public investment and oversight of systems that have public benefits and costs, but are on private land.

Point 4:UTILITY FUNDED

BARRIER: What is the method and legal framework for socializing the cost of infrastructure that’s located on private property…but has public impacts?

VT: Working on it.

I hereby pledge that I will support new partnerships and strategies for properly managed, utility funded, distributed, soil based wastewater systems to serve New

England villages and communities, and shall no more say the words “septic” or “sewers,” even though…hello…I’m an architect and I

cannot believe I had to listen to a talk about SEWAGE!

21st century water is a paradigm shift, and it’s never going to be easy. But for the sake of the Villagers, please take this pledge:

Your Homework:

• Get into the topic! Get informed!• ADD WATER AND HYDROLOGY to your thinking about “Green Buildings”!• CHALLENGE YOUR ENGINEER, or community, with an on-site treatment or

re-use idea!• REIMAGINE GREENSPACE for re-hydrating our landscape and cleaning our

water!• Visit an on-site training center!• Have your organization become an MOU partner for distributed

wastewater management:http://www.epa.gov/owm/septic/pubs/septic_mou.pdf

…and your village and its

water resources will live

happily ever after.

Disclaimer:

No children were harmed in the filming of this presentation.