Water and Waste Systems


Introduction
In typical institutional and residential communities, rainwater that falls on buildings, sidewalks, roads, compacted soils and other impermeable surfaces drains into waterways and storm sewers, gathering contaminants along the way, until it is discharged into a lake or river far from where the drops fell.  Occasionally, the water is subject to cursory treatment before it is discharged, but in most cases, not only is the rainwater prevented from recharging the local aquifer, but its quality is degraded as it is carried away.  These institutions and communities often draw from ground and surface water sources of reasonably high quality, and use large quantities of this vital resource to simply transport wastes.  Additionally, all infectious human wastes (ie. feces) are mixed together with sterile urine and kitchen, laundry, and showering water, making treatment and resource recovery considerably more difficult and energy intensive.

The UVM Living/Learning Ecovillage has the potential to set a new standard for the way in which communities utilize the resources that flow through their communities and ultimately impact the availability and quality of natural resources and ecosystem services for generations to come.

Rainwater Catchment and Treatment
Rainwater will be collected from the glass roofs of the greenhouse and causeway drained into an underground cistern.  Water pumped from the cistern will be treated with a packed bed filter and UV sterilizer before it is distributed for drinking, cooking, showering, and laundry throughout the ecovillage building.
While most of the studios and rooms will be remodeled, much of the existing potable water plumbing will be able to be reused with this system.

Greenroofs and Stormwater Swales
The non-glass roof areas will be planted with extensive green roofing materials.  These vegetated surfaces, planted with sedums and succulents, will have the ability to simultaneously attenuate the flow of stormwater from the complex and remove some of the trace contaminants contained within the rainwater, thus lessening the peak load on municipal treatment systems during a storm event.
Additional benefits include preservation of the roofs’ waterproofing materials, thermal buffering, and decreasing the heat island effect.

The stormwater runoff from ground level impervious surfaces will be captured by vegetated swales strategically located to hold and treat particularly smaller storm events which typically wash collected contaminants off roadways and into waterways.
   
Greywater Collection and Treatment
Greywater (ie. sink, shower, and laundry water) will be collected separately from toilet wastes.  This water will be treated initially by a recirculating packed bed biological filter.  From there it will flow through a series of constructed wetlands and sculptural water features along causeway, where it will be subject to further treatment and contribute significantly to the visual and aural aesthetic of the market place.  The wetlands will help to communicate the integration of the natural and built environments and the ecovillage’s emphasis on the preservation of water resources.

The treated greywater will continue North out of the causeway and will be discharged to a series of unlined infiltration wetlands on the Northeast side of the Living/Learning Center.  These wetlands will allow the rainwater to recharge the groundwater below the Living/Learning complex – the aquifer for which it was originally intended.  Additionally, the wetlands will provide sound buffering from main street as well as a site for the propagation of beneficial tree seedlings.

Fecal Waste Treatment
Because the Living/Learning Ecovillage project is a renovation, retrofitting the entire unit with waterless composting toilets seemed impractical.  The chosen alternative showcases and compares three different ecological toilet solutions, one for each of the three columns of Unit E.  One column will utilize its orientation directly above the laundry/utility room to employ waterless composting toilets.  Another column with employ micro-flush and vacuum flush toilets for use with composting units also located in the utility room.  The third column will simply use micro-flush toilets with discharge to the Burlington municipal treatment plant.

Care and maintenance of the composting units will become the responsibility of the villagers as part of one of the many aspects of decentralized living.  After the compost has undergone its final finishing process, it will be suitable for fertilizing the tree propagation site.

Urine Diversion and Collection
All of the toilets will be of a urine diverting design, equipped with a strategically placed rim that captures urine exclusively.  Urine will be piped from these and the waterless urinals to a tank located in the laundry/utility room.  This sterile liquid is high in phosphorus and may be diluted and applied as fertilizer for the fruit and nut trees as well as other landscape features.