The Star Press newspaper in Muncie, Ind., reports that Ball State University is considering building a greenhouse to treat and recycle its wastewater. “The idea is to save money, cut energy use, discharge cleaner water, lower the demand on the public water supply, decrease the load on the city’s wastewater treatment plant, use less water and teach students,” the news story said.
“We’re involved in a potential project at the feasibility stage, to determine if we can do it,” associate vice president of facilities planning and management Kevin Kenyon told the newspaper. “There are a lot of issues involved, including financial, technical and legal aspects. Like any project, they all start out as an idea. Sometimes they go somewhere, sometimes they don’t.”
The university’s council on the environment has endors a technology pioneered by Organica Water, a Hungarian firm that calls such a facilities a BlueHouse. The university has been aggressive in energy conservation, installing a geothermal heating and cooling system.
“The treated water is clean enough for any non-potable use, such as watering the landscape, flushing toilets and supplying cooling towers and boilers, rather than throwing it away through miles of pipes to the city’s wastewater treatment plant,” the news story said.
Plants in a BlueHouse do not treat the water – they provide habitat in their root zone for microorganisms that eat wastewater contaminants. Read more at http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20121014/NEWS01/310140021/BSU-explores-sewage-treatment-greenho?nclick_check=1.
