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Kelsey Rae

London Times

Zero carbon drive on right road

THE Government’s commitment that all new homes should be zero-carbon by 2016 is welcome and will make an important contribution to the European Union drive to have 20 per cent of our total energy from renewable sources by 2020.

The preferred location for zero-carbon homes source of energy is from building integrated, on-site and community-based renewable energy solutions.

Kingspan at the Building Research Establishment headquarters in Watford has developed one such example. This property can be regarded as zero-carbon. It has very low heat demand and a biomass boiler and solar photovoltaic panels provide for its energy needs. There will be a number of different approaches to going zero-carbon, and the Kingspan house is just one example. As solutions become more commonly applied, prices will start to come down. Technological advances, such as thin film photovoltaic solar panels will also reduce the cost.

Preparing for the mainstreaming of zero-carbon homes by 2016 has started with the Government taking important first steps such as the proposals for eco-towns and higher sustainable home levels for public sector funded developments. Maintaining the ability of councils to set targets in local plans for the proportion of renewable energy in new developments will be important in developing the capacity to achieve the 2016 target.

Bioneers

The Bioneers conference in Grinell, Iowa this weekend was quite a blast. I was particularly pleasantly surprised with the main speakers. I didn't have the highest hopes about driving two hours to sit in a classroom and watch a satillite feed of another conference that was happening states away, but was blown away by some of the talks and was inspired by all.

Speaker Van Jones especially impressed me. His passion and humor carried the audience with him through a journey of disgust, sympthy, determination, inspiration, joy, and anger. Uniting all with visions of a better world, adding the realization that we as bioneers all have a common goal but with different approaches to the same problems.

Below is a link to a summary of a similar talk that was given by Jones at the 2006 Bioneers conference, Bioneers by the Bay: Connecting for Change. http://youtube.com/watch?v=VKdhpGikzs4

Overall I found the week to be enlightening and inspiring. To see and be a part of that many people interested and willing in changing our world for the better is comforting and uplifting to my spirits. I would really love to be apart of this next year, and for years to come, hopefully at some point being able to add my own two cents to the informing and inspiring or others.

Waste Water Treatment For Fairfield, Ia

Questions and Answers with Fairfield's Superintendent Ken Goering

Q: How many gallons of sewage a year does Fairfield treat? A: 571 million gallons

Q: What are the stages of sewage treatment A: Preliminary to remove grit, Primary to remove settleable solids, Secondary to remove suspended solids and soluble solids, Tertiary to run through sand filters for an example to eliminate any residual suspended solids. We are classified as an activated sludge secondary treatment plant.

Q: for example, where does the water go when I flush my toilet? A: Toilet to building sewer

    to Lateral (private responsibility)
    to Branch (city)
    to Main
    to Trunk
    to Interceptor
    to Treatment plant

Q: Does my sink water, waste water, ditch water all go to the same place?

A: sink and toilet go together to collection system to treatment plant

    ditch water to storm drain to Cedar or Crow Creek

Q: Where is the storm water from ditches diverted? Is it treated? If so, how many gallons a year of storm water is treated? A: The City does not treat storm water. Please note that by the Dept of Ag (Fairfield Urban Steward Alliance) does have a storm water treatment with multiple ponds to remove sediment and assure better water quality going to Jefferson County Park. Your group should definitely look at this project.

Q: How old is the water/sewage system? A: This plant was built in the mid 1960's with one trickling filter (bacteria hanging on rocks and eating the poop as it trickles by) and was classified as a secondary treatment plant. This was upgraded to activated sludge in 1985 (lots of bacteria in a moving mass eating poop that gets near them and making more bacteria (sludge)) see attachments.

Q: Are there any plans to improve/enlarge treatment facilities? A: We need sludge storage, better preliminary screening, a ultra violet light disinfections process, and a lot of maintenance on current operations. We also want to change where we add air for our bacteria. Activated sludge is just taking nature and making it possible for nature to eat more poop more efficienly within the space provided. Lagoons have been used and can be modified so that nitrate (NO3) is removed before the water gets to the receiving stream. That is one of the functions of a properly operated activated sludge plant.

Q: Where does the fresh water we use come from?

  Are there issues of agriculture contaminates from that source?
  Does Fairfield/Jefferson County contribute to agriculture contamination?

A: We have sanitary sewer overflows of un-treated sewage that has overflowed onto private property and into streams during heavy rains.

Q: If so, are there any plans/incentives to reduce the amount? A: We are striving to locate and correct sources that cause the rain surge to enter the sanitary sewer (toilet flushing sewer). We fixed one location where years ago a storm drain was connected to the sanitary sewer. We have flow monitors placed at different places in our sewer collection system to help us identify problem areas to investigate. We have found pipes with a lot of cracking that lets ground water in. We have found roof drains dumping to the sanitary sewer. We suspect that we also have a lot of basement sump pumps dumping to the sanitary sewers. Rain flows can easily be 10 times the normal flow filling the sewers and causing the overflows.

Q: Are there plans/incentives within the city to promote water conservation that are available to citizens and businesses? Within the state? Nationally? A: Sewer rates based on water usage help fund the sewer& treatment improvements needed and do help save wasting water. We have a lot of work that needs to happen to our sewer collection and treatment system in the next 30 years. We do use plant discharge (effluent) for watering the golf course. WEF has many great articles that should be of interest to you.