• Monica, Pam, and Steve Collect Water Samples
• On-Site Wastewater Treatment Systems Seminar
• On-Site Wastewater Treatment Systems

A new initiative from the Texas A&M University (TAMU) System and other cooperators aims to educate and demonstrate how innovative on-site wastewater treatment systems can help maintain water quality in Central Texas.

The project is a team effort of researchers and extension specialists at the TAMU Blackland Research Center (BRC) in Temple, the TAMU Agricultural Engineering Department, the Bell County Health Department (BCHD), and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB). It was funded by TSSWCB through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water Act (CWA) 319 (h) program. Key participants in this program include Dr. Dennis Hoffman, June Wolfe and Loren Witt of BRC, Dr. Bruce Lesikar and Russell Persyn of TAMU, Kevin Canfield of TSSWCB, and Michael Jahns of the BCHD. Faculty and students from colleges in the region will be involved, including Darrell Watson of the University of Mary Hardin Baylor in Belton and Mac McBryde of Central Texas College in Killeen.

"The problem homeowners are facing now," says Jahns, "is that standard systems, in many cases, cannot be allowed at problem sites under the new Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission Rules. People were used to being able to install a conventional system wherever they want, but now they realize they need to explore non-standard methods of on-site wastewater treatment."

Of course, the project is also targeted towards teaching existing homeowners how they can better maintain their systems to prevent pollution. "Unfortunately," Hoffman says, "we're learning that people who recently purchased an existing home may not even know what type of system they have, let alone how to take care of it, until something goes wrong." "We have found many instances in which people build a home in rural parts of this area and find out they can't use a septic tank and drainfield," Long explains. "When this happens, they often don't know what to do in order to choose the on-site wastewater system which is right for them. There's a big need for education that we hope to address." To address these concerns, the team developed a wide-ranging educational program which includes seminars for installers, realtors, and the public, the distribution of fact sheets developed by Lesikar as well as those developed by BRC for the "Tex*A*Syst" water pollution prevention program, and the creation of a World Wide Web (WWW) site which includes diagrams of a variety of on-site wastewater treatment technologies. Another objective is to provide technical information about new technologies to local designated representatives and regulators. "It used to be that troubleshooting an on-site system was fairly easy because so many of the systems were standard septic tanks and drainfields," Jahns says. "But as new and innovative systems become more widespread, our five-person staff needs to be brought up to speed about how these new strategies will perform in difficult situations and how to fix them if they fail."

As part of this thrust, Persyn and Lesikar have sought to locate at least four homeowners who may desire to install and maintain innovative systems on their properties. Earlier this year, they worked with two homeowners to design innovative systems to replace failed septic tanks and drainfields. At one site, blackwater and greywater will be separated. Constructed wetlands will be used for secondary treatment of the blackwater, while the greywater will be disinfected and spray irrigated. At the other site, a sand filter will treat wastewaters and effluents will be applied with spray irrigation. Both systems are now being constructed. Other technologies they hope to implement and demonstrate include evapotranspiration beds, aerobic units, sand filters, and low-pressure dosing.

July 13, 2000
Dennis Hoffman, Project Leader;
Steve Dagitz, Webmaster