The Price of Clean Water, Part Two

Aired December 17, 1999

Across America, cities are facing a federal mandate to clean up their sewers. The problem is combined sewer overflows that allow raw sewage to escape into rivers during heavy storms. But the costs of clean-up are enormous and local governments must bear the burden alone. New techniques of watershed management offer ways to reduce flooding and pollution and restore natural waterways. But other wastewater treatment technologies are becoming available, technologies that mimic the natural cleansing properties of wetlands. 90.3's Karen Schaefer has this report on the potential of these alternative technologies for reducing the costs of clean water, now and in the future.

At Oberlin College is a building like a tree. Like a tree, it's a structure that creates more energy than it uses and recycles its own wastes. Already the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies has won two national awards for its sustainable, ecological design. And like a tree, the ideas behind the building are beginning to bear fruit. At the heart of the building is a remarkable new technology for treating wastewater called the Living Machine, developed by Canadian biologist John Todd. In the sunny atrium is a glass-walled room, floored with gravel and filled with large plastic tubs. By this spring, Oberlin College biologist Dr. David Benzing says the water-filled tubs will support a lush growth of wetland vegetation.

Benzing says the Living Machine works much like conventional wastewater treatment systems, separating solids from liquids and digesting the organic pollutants in underground chambers. But he the says the final step of filtering the treated water through tubs of wetland plants goes one step farther than conventional systems.

Benzing believes the environmental advantages of treating wastewater with the Living Machine are profound. But he admits there are trade-offs. One is the cost of hiring experts to manage the complexities of its biological system. But another new green technology offers both low maintenance and added green space in exchange for clean water. Ron Bell of the Ohio EPA says he's been asked to approve a number of new projects in Northeast Ohio that use outdoor wetlands to treat wastewater.

Bell says outdoor wetlands systems generally require more space than conventional sewage plants, making them inappropriate for crowded inner cities. And he says though wetlands systems are being used successfully in many states, as with any new technology, costly failures do occur. But Bell believes that, despite higher initial costs, wetlands offer long-term economic advantages.

Ron Bell: What I've heard is the maintenance costs on these types of systems are probably a lot lower than you might expect for a mechanical type of system. Probably on a long-term basis, you're better off with this...So I think that's where we're headed for the future is more of these types of systems if someone wants to develop them.

In Lorain County, Commissioners are still considering a wetlands system to treat wastewater from an unconnected county sewer line. And in the village of Gates Mills in southeastern Cuyahoga County, local resident Peter Griesinger says two years ago his community began considering the benefits of a wetlands system to replace its aging septic sewers in the village center.

Peter Griesinger: The wetland is one-sixth the size of the footprint of a package plant. A package plants costs, in this case, about $2,500 a month to operate, while the wetland - at most - $1,000.

Griesinger says that, in the Gates Mills project, even the capital cost of the wetlands was an attractive option. But last February the village council rejected the proposal. Griesinger admits he's disappointed about the failure of his efforts to educate officials about the new technology.

Peter Griesinger: We understand that any change in society is difficult and profound....Where you have people, engineers, councilmen and women, a mayor and contractors and a county health department who are all geared to what they've had in the past.

Environmental proponents hope that as more people learn about how alternative technologies for treating wastewater work, the new designs will gain widespread acceptance. Already wetlands systems are at work in environments as diverse as Tennessee and Texas, Georgia and California. In Brazil, a city of 40,000 people is now getting its clean drinking water from the largest model to date of one of John Todd's Living Machines. And at Oberlin, a building like a tree is planting the seeds of new ideas in the mind of every visitor. For 90.3, I'm Karen Schaefer in Cleveland.