GBlist: Water purification

John Salmen (terrain@seaside.net)
Wed, 19 Mar 1997 21:23:39 -0800

I am having a problem finding criteria for designing effective water
systems for (rural) residential applications.
I have been urging clients to include water filtration as a design
criteria because of the large number of systems here that have fecal
contamination but have not found any systems that can effectively or
safely deal with issues of contamination (incl. giardia and
cryptosporidium), water conservation (water loss through filtration
backwash), energy conservation (system operation) and toxicity (concerns
with chemical treatment used in conjunction with conventional septic
field waste systems)

My biggest concern is one of confidence about a filtration mediums
ability to effectively and predictably screen bacteria at that scale.
Conventional commercially available systems seem too small so I am
interested in the potential of site construction of large sand
filtration beds (similar to sand filtration for septic disposal
systems).

Is anyone aware of what current available research there is to support
the design and testing of such a system - meaning specifications as to
its size and design with some predictability of results.

Any help or references would be greatly appreciated as I feel a bit
stuck on this one.
thank,
John Salmen
TERRAIN E.D.S
terrain@seaside.net
__________________________________________________________________
This greenbuilding dialogue is sponsored by Oikos (www.oikos.com)
and Environmental Building News (www.ebuild.com). For instructions
send e-mail to greenbuilding-request@crest.org.
__________________________________________________________________