Providing Water

You just bought this piece of property, closed escrow two weeks ago. You know where you're going to put your house and the septic tank. You know there are some springs somewhere up the hill by those oaks. Now what?

You open the book Providing Water, a Practical Field Guide, and sit on a stump and start leafing through it. Says here that with gravity feed, you can have a complete water system including reliable treatment with no power, no chemicals, and no replacement cartridges. Hey, this would work for the local charity's project in the Philippines, since they don't don't have power at that village or the money to buy chemicals or a lot of replacement cartridges. Cool.

 Hmm. How much water do I need? Find the chapter about assessing the need and you find out how much a person needs per day for themselves and other uses. That's interesting. Says here how much water you need depends on whether you have to carry the water, whether you have to irrigate, or wash a car, or have flush toilets. And here's a chart that shows how to calculate this. 

OK, next. You march up the hill and find the Woodwardia ferns that the book says grow around water sources. Now what? The book describes your source and how to protect it with a good spring box. So far so good. You're feeling confident now that you will be able to layout the piping and deal with the pressure and air in the lines by following the principles outlined in the book. Wow, that's neat. You can reduce the pressure by putting a small tank halfway down the hill. Who woulda thought?

But, I may need to pump to a higher location. Oh, it describes pumping  as well with choices- solar pumping, diesel, or from a reliable power grid.

You look at the drawings that detail what simple but reliable methods you can employ to remove pathogens, so your water is safe. You can manage this, it makes sense. And it's not rocket science.

The Book project

This project will produce a useful book based on my 20 plus years helping people all over the world source, treat, and provide water. The result will be a high quality document, ebook and paperback, which will include how-to, case studies, drawings, and illustrations. References will be provided for further study. To make this document maximally useful, I will reduce the jargon and use basic language, understandable by the lay person, do-it-yourselfer, development professional, disaster planner, and engineer. With this Field Guide, a person will be able to thoughtfully design and create a basic functional water system from source to tap using field tested techniques and reliable technologies. Topics include:

Table of contents

Introduction to rural water supply

Assessing the need

Assessing the water shed

Identifying sources- pros and cons

Developing a plan

Budget

Starting at the source

Treatment

Storage

Distribution

Testing

Community sustainability

Is it working after a year?

Great, Bill, but really? Appropriate Technology?

Normally I make a policy of not commenting on the efforts of others working with water and wastewater, because we need innovation and all  the best thinking we can get. But after seeing this, I just have to respond.
For context, some months ago I posted a blog post concerning how to select technologies in which I stated that there are fundamental requirements for any technology anywhere to be sustainable. These rules are summarized in the following graphic:

This Gate's technology would be great for anywhere there is the finance, technical and material support readily available to support it. I would love for every one of the Coal Bed Methane producers and Frackers to use this kind of engineering thinking to remove the associated pollutants so that the water could be released and reused safely. Also for military or other uses where there is an existing  strong and continuous support.

But it looks like they are thinking of this for developing country use. In this context it is a big negative. It will cease working when parts break, chemicals are not readily available, power fails, the technical expertise is not around, or the financial assets are not reliably available.

OK, so it quits working. So what. Probably financed by some sort of grants or loans from the North, No big deal...... Except for the end users.

If we are going to propose technologies that save lives and make lives better, it is a responsibility to make sure that we are proposing things that will work and be sustainable.

I have been a sad witness to many grand ideas originating in northern labs and think tanks in developing countries that looked great, but failed. When they fail, the people affected lose confidence in other proposals. Just last year, I was conversing with project directors for a drinking water project in India. We had come up with a solid, sustainable, appropriate solution using rainwater catchment and treatment. But, there was considerable resistance in the community. Why? Because previously, the same NGO had installed a high tech system that failed almost  immediately, irreparably.

Gate's foundation is doing amazing work all over the world to reduce poverty and help give people a chance to live better. On this one, they are missing the mark.

In our zeal to save the world, we need to be thoughtful about what we propose and the long term effects of our work.

2014 Governor's Emerging Trader of the Year- Blue Future

Thursday evening, I attended the annual World Trade Club of Washington'sTrader of the Year event  to receive the 2014 Emerging Trader of the Year award and a beautiful crystal trophy. Below are my remarks at that time:

"I want to thank the World Trade Club for this prestigious honor. We have had a joke around the office that one of these days, after years and years of hard work and ups and downs, we would become an overnight success, and this honor is certainly an indicator that we’re getting there. Much credit goes to the vigorous state and federal trade agencies in Washington that have provided Blue Future with invaluable help.

 What does Blue Future do? Blue Future makes and supplies our proprietary low tech water treatment systems to customers throughout the US and, to date, to 22 countries.  It started from my graduate work with Mayan communities in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico in the early 90s and arose from a simple question.

“Is it possible to provide a reliable and safe drinking water system that will work for years, that takes water from surface sources, doesn’t require electricity, or chemicals, or replacement cartridges, and can be maintained by local people? “

The answer was a 200 hundred year old biological technology called slow sand filtration, SSF. SSF removes high levels of bacteria, viruses, and cysts, making water safe. But, there’s a hitch. Traditionally slow sand filters are big, engineered, concrete and steel projects.

Blue Future solved this problem by putting the technology into new materials. This allows for a manufactured solution that amortizes the engineering over thousands of identical systems.  We supply systems that treat 450 gallons per day up to 200 gallons per minute, enough safe water for 31,000 people. The result is Blue Future can provide US standard drinking water to any community, anywhere in the world at reasonable cost.

Some of our projects over the years have included village filters for Sumatra after the 2005 Tsunami, rainforest indigenous communities in Peru, and for the last three years we have been supplying village sized filters to Safe Water Network for communities around Lake Volta, Ghana with funding from Newman’s Own Foundation and Hilton.

The bottom line for Blue Future is that 1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water. Two million people die every year from preventable water born disease. Blue Future’s vision is to reduce these numbers, and I wish to thank you for your recognition of our vision and efforts. "

Humboldt Bound

I'm heading to Humboldt in a week or so, my old stomping grounds. This time it is to deliver a slow sand filters system in Whitethorn, and to visit some folks along the way. If you are in Oregon, or that northern part of California, give me a nudge.

Training

Coming up on the 20th of August is one of my favorite types of  activities- training of operators. This time it is for the Oregon Association of Water Utilities annual conference in beautiful Seaside Oregon. At these trainings, I have the opportunity of showing slow sand filters and roughing filters and their many advantages for small utilities. Small rural utilities face numerous problems in fulfilling their missions to provide safe water of the same quality as large cities. It's hard for them to attract the kind of operator who can operate a sophisticated treatment plant that requires constant maintenance and unique skills. Those operators want to live in and around cities where the big bucks are. Additionally, small utilities don't have the operating budgets to pay for disposable elements or chemicals.
Slow sand and roughing filtration answer these issues very effectively.
If your organization would like to arrange a brown bag seminar or presentation on how these technologies can work for you and save you money, please contact me to discuss- hb@slowsandfilter.com

Revisiting Carrying Capacity

I think it's time for us to reconsider what carrying capacity is in terms of land use.  The website Biology On Line defines carrying capacity as the "largest number of individuals of a particular species that can survive over long periods of time in a given enviroment, this level depends on the effect of the limiting factors".

That is pretty much how we use it in animal husbandry- how many animals can we get onto a piece of land and have them survive from the available food. If we add suplimental feeding, then the carrying capacity goes up and we put more animals on the land. But there's a problem.


Recently I became aware of two facts here in Whatcom County, Washington, that are true in many areas. First, in looking at some aquifer maps, I saw that there are very high accumulations of Nitrate in groundwater around Lynden, a  highly agricultural area here. The second fact was visual. Driving last week across the county I saw in several places huge impulse sprinklers spraying manure slurry onto the fields. This is a common practice as a means of getting rid of the manure from dairy operations and improving the fertility of the land, so it can produce good grass for the herds.

Do you see the problem? That manure is the source of the Nitrate in the groundwater. So, the land may be able to feed the animals, but it can't process the waste.
Which leads to the conclusion that carrying capacity should not just be about how many animals you can feed on a piece of land, but also how can the land process the waste products of the animals without destroying water quality.

Another way to look at this is to look at true costs of agriculture. The true cost would include removing the nitrate from the water that the animals contributed.

One way or another, we pay. If we use present land use definitions of carrying capacity, we pay for the treatment to remove the pollutants. If we restrict the number of animals to more accurately represent carrying capacity, the price of meat will go up. We pay with tax, or we pay at the store. Of course, the meat producers would prefer not to talk about it. If they don't have to pay a true cost of production, then they look like they are selling a good value, and the costs to fix the damage are managed by those all time favorite bad guys- the government.

If meat prices reflected the true cost, we probably wouldn't buy so much, which is a worry for the producers, but would benefit our aquifers, and for that matter our hearts.

Mass production of meat is a little like the fossil fuels business. there are lots of subsidies, tax breaks,  and market tricks that camouflage the true cost. At the very least, we should push back the veils to see what our meat consumption really costs us in dollars and environmental impacts.

Cherokee Nation Slow Sand Filter

Posting pictures and descriptions as they happen, scroll down for earlier photos.

September 29th, 2014. The chart below shows turbidity data following start up of the filter and covers about the first 30 days with measurements by Hach 1720e turbidimeters every 15 minutes. The upper curve is filter 1, the lower is filter 2. Filter 1 may have higher turbidity because it was the filter where sand was blown in resulting in lots of dust. Both filters trending downwards as we would expect and at this time are in the upper .1s. Constant flow and clean gravel result in start ups like this. The minor oscillations are interesting and may be a result of pump cycling on the supply effecting water level in the tanks, or finished water effecting back pressure on the control valve. There is also a longer term oscillation at work here.

Kenwood slow sand filter turbidity, the first month.

August 12th, 2014. Filters have been online for a couple of weeks now. Turbidity in filtered water continues to go down, latest around 2.5 NTU. Filters producing steady 65 gpm for the community. We expect chlorine demand to be significantly declining as well compared to how the system worked before the slow sand filters went in. That means reduced Trihalomethanes.

July 30th, 2014. Filter is online producing water of acceptable quality. I did a quick calculation on the cost per gallon of this project over the expected life of the system and it comes out to $.00065 gallon. That's a pretty good return on investment for the community.

July 7th, start up week. After a few delays dealing with media issues, sand was loaded in the filter tanks using super sacks. A previous effort using a blower resulted in a major dust storm in the building! The good news is, sand was loaded and water filled the tanks for commissioning.

 Loading and leveling sand.

 After filling the tanks from below, to eliminate air, water passes to the overflow weir and then the clearwell. Now comes the tuning to make adjustments for maximum performance, such as adjusting float rod arm length.

After initial filling to flood the media, influent flow shifts to above the sand, first hitting splash plates to dissipate energy and not dig into the sand. Harrowing inlets are the duller white forms center top of the picture. These are used for cleaning the sand when necessary. Initial turbidity measurements were .6 and .7, already in compliance with surface water treatment standards.

June 27. Side view of the newly installed stainless steel overflow weir/clearwell tank. This tank is placed between the filter tanks and protects the filters from being inadvertently dewatered as well as being a constant head device which maintains constant flow, adjusting for headloss in the filter. The 3" valve controls flow through the filter. A valve on the opposite side of the tank controls flow through the other filter.

June 27th. Prior to loading the sand, the gravel layers are covered with water and chlorinated to sanitize. Careful treatment of the gravel is critical to successful slow sand filter start up.

The Building goes up around the tanks, which are already loaded with gravel and have underdrain installed.

4/29 A view from the water tower showing the completed tanks with gravel and underdrains nearing completion. Next, the building will be built around the filters. When that is completed, the weir/clearwell tank, and plumbing will be completed and sand will be loaded. Getting close folks. Stay tuned!

4/22 Course gravel went in first, then the slotted underdrain pipe and connecting manifold. The gravel was washed multiple times to make sure that clean water will come out of the filter when it is started up.

4/17 Looking inside the tank with protective mastic applied and stainless steel nozzles for the inlet, outlet, harrowing, and overflow. Next- the gravel and underdrain piping going in.

4/16. here are the two filter tanks almost completed, The underdrain laterals are stacked in the foreground. Since this photo was taken, the a sealer was applied to the inside of the tanks to protect them from the gravel media. Next step will be placing course gravel in the bottom of the tank, followed by assembly of the slotted PVC underdrain piping, then the rest of the gravel layers. The brown tee shape is a drain system.  Later, a stainless steel clearwell/weir tank, being fabricated, will be installed between the two filters. Stay tuned!

This is exciting. The floor and starter rings for two 100 gpm slow sand filters using glass coated steel tanks were poured last weekend. The tank is being erected this week and soon the underdrain, gravel and sand will be installed. Culminating a three year effort, this state of the art slow sand filter will be accomplished at a fraction of the cost of conventional built in place concrete tanks. This is possible because of Blue Future's modular approach to slow sand filters, and the use of modern materials and methods.
Why build from scratch when you can go off the shelf?
Stay tuned for more pictures!