Habitat Acres’ self-contained sewage system is the first of its kind in an Alberta subdivision. Hundreds of communities throughout North America have been using this affordable, environmentally friendly technology for the past two decades.

Onsite Specialties, of Sherwood Park, will install an Orenco® Effluent Sewer to collect residents’ wastewater and an Orenco AdvanTex® Treatment System to turn it into effluent that’s so clean it can be reused for irrigation. This equipment is included in the lot price.

Orenco’s Effluent Sewers rely on passive, natural, and energy-efficient processes. There are no noisy blowers or fans, and no backyard mounds.

How it works
An underground watertight tank is installed at each home site. Raw sewage flows from the house into the tank, where it is naturally pre-treated. More than two-thirds of wastewater treatment is accomplished in the tank, where it’s out of sight and out of mind. It is kinder to the environment than the huge treatment tanks at municipal plants.

Wastewater in the tank separates into three layers: a scum layer at the top, a sludge layer at the bottom, and a “clear zone” of effluent in between. Microbes decompose the organic matter in the top and bottom layers.

Liquid from the clear zone is filtered, then discharged by pump or gravity to small diameter watertight pipes. These pipes collect the effluent from every home and transport it to the underground treatment system.

In the treatment system, the effluent circulates repeatedly through several large textile filters until it’s so clear and odourless that it looks like water. It is then discharged underground.

Continuous system monitoring
The entire system is monitored and controlled remotely, by Orenco’s VeriComm® Monitoring System. Each home site comes with a control panel, which is equipped with a modem. It uses the resident’s phone line (in the middle of the night, while folks are sleeping) to automatically and routinely report system data to a centralized server, where it is then available to the operator, via computer. As a result, Habitat Acres’ sewage system is continuously monitored, around the clock.

A model for others
We’re confident that our community’s wastewater solution will ultimately become a model for other communities that take environmental stewardship as seriously as we do. For more information, go to www.orenco.com.