Brown is the new green - Let's save a wetland in Maryland

few days ago I received an e-mail from a member of the Kunzang Palyul Chöling center. Let's read their needs, the story and their experience about treatment wetlands.

Groundbreaking Earth-friendly Wastewater Processing Project at Risk

“Brown is the New Green” is a campaign to support and maintain the first man-made wetlands in Maryland to process residential wastewater. In 1988, this new alternative, called a constructed wetlands, was just being pioneered to treat residential sewage to protect lakes and groundwater. This project, designed and installed at a Buddhist monastery and temple, has successfully treated wastewater with earth-friendly methods, and without any chemicals or untreated releases.

After 26 years of continuous and successful operation, this landmark environmental experiment is now at risk, requiring rehabilitation and maintenance. Gravel beds need to be removed and replaced, as well as clearing invasive plants and installing new aquatic plants. There is urgency to this project requiring planting before the first frost so aquatic plants have the opportunity to establish roots.

An Indiegogo campaign with a goal of $33,000 has been launched to support this short-term project. Kunzang Palyul Choling (KPC) is a Buddhist temple in Poolesville, MD and home to monks and nuns, with a prayer and meditation room open 24 hours to the public and a 65-acre wildlife sanctuary with hiking trails and meditation gardens.

President of KPC, Claire Waggoner says “We’re proud of sustaining this green project for 26 years, yet as a small non-profit we need support to preserve it for the future”.  

The use of constructed wetlands has the potential to change how rural and developing locations treat their wastewater. Many parts of the US and the world have no water treatment facilities. Constructed wetlands require few resources and none of the chemicals than industrial water treatment facilities use.

KPC Temple is located at 18400 River Road, Poolesville, MD 20837. More information is available at www.tara.org. 

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about our story, Shelley Sims at shelleynsims@aol.com is the press contact.

friend's project

... and a friend call me... "Hi Dave, please tell me which are the best flowering plants that I can plant in this treatment wetland? But please tell me species that bees can pollinate".
Well, in my opinion, all the flowering wetland species can be used and in particular for the local climate: Caltha palustris, Iris pseudacorus, Iris ensata, Canna, Calla, Lythrum salicaria, Nymphaea alba, Nuphar lutea, Pomtederia cordata, Thalia dealbata... no reeds this time!

electrons and wastewater treatment!

This early morning I have listen a radio program here in Italy. The topic was "wastewater treatment with bacteria and electrons". Great!!! I thought, one more idea on wastewater treatment different than the traditional systems.
Here the link to the podcast:
radio link ( just in Italian) to RADIO 24 ILSOLE24ORE

I was also interviewed in the same radio few years ago. 


Well, I promptly contacted the prof. that following this project, which has kindly responded.I have also know that he is a wetland's friend!!!

"Aquaelectra is a project funded through the programme  INNPACTO from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.
This collaborative project has three objectives: to develop a natural system of sewage treatment using wetlands, to establish a bioelectric anaerobic treatment system for wastewater and to build a bioelectrogenic removal system of nutrients (nitrogen).
Bioelectrogenesis is a novel process by which certain bacteria can oxidize organic matter and transfer electrons generated directly to a solid surface conductive, for example, graphite so we can obtain and store clean energy.
Members  of Aquaelectra are IMDEA-Water Institute (Bioelectrogenesis group),  CENTA Foundation (Centre for New Water Technologies) and wastewater and water treatment companies JOCA, DAM  and Euroestudios, responsible for coordinating the projec."
From the web at http://www.aquaelectra.es

TED Sidney, Nigel Marsh. a Great speech.

Nigel Marsh:

How to make work-life balance work

"Work-life balance, says Nigel Marsh, is too important to be left in the hands of your employer. Marsh lays out an ideal day balanced between family time, personal time and productivity — and offers some stirring encouragement to make it happen." copied from the following TED web page.

I want to share with you, my dear blog readers, this great talk of the TED in Sidney
http://www.ted.com/talks/nigel_marsh

and his  fb at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nigel-Marsh


TED  is a platform for ideas worth spreading. Started in 1984 as a conference where technology, entertainment and design converged, TED today shares ideas from a broad spectrum — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independent TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.   from http://www.ted.com/

Ecuador, a consulting for a friend!

"Hi prof, Luca here. I'm in Ecuador and need your experience to design a treatment wetlands for the discharge of  400 pigs. Actually they send pig slurry and wastewater into the river".

These are the first words wrote by Luca, a student of mine few years ago, which is actually in Ecuador for his university training.

The situation is common as in a lot of other places in the world. There is a discharge that is used to be sent into the nearest river. This is done because is the easiest way to be done. But not the right.
But thanks to some enlightened minds a good choice is done: treat it before the discharge.

I copy here few pictures of the situation sent by Luca:

He have had also the great idea to make a sketch.... but in situation like this it have to be consider the executive design:

Great job! thanks to share with me this experience!
Keep in touch to see the construction!

Scottish Water invests in £8.7m aerated wetland scheme

Great news from Scotland!!!

Scottish Water has invested £8.7 million in an aerated wetland scheme at Cowdenbeath to improve its combined sewer network.

The water company has been working with reed bed specialists ARM Limited and Barhale Construction since September 2013 to design and construct a wetland scheme which will treat the spill flows from two Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) for attenuation and treatment before being discharged into the Lochgelly Burn.
 Located to the south of Cowdenbeath Golf Course, the £8.7million project involved the construction of two units; the first a flow balancing shaft settlement system for sedimentation of solids and the second a 4,000m2, two metre deep saturated, vertical flow aerated wetland fitted with Forced Bed AerationTM (FBATM).

text copied from http://waterbriefing.org/

new project ahead. ready to start!

you can image what we are plan to do in the next months... a new collaboration is ready to rise up new environment, strenght env. conciousness, create beautiful landscape.
Noah Manarang from Vetiver Farm Incorporated in Philippines and me are planning to do something great in one of the most beautiful city in the world. Follow she and her projects also on facebook and on my profile .facebook.com/davide.tocchetto