Can an Advanced Treatment System be Passive ?

The Onsite industry has seen tremendous changes in the past 20 years. Historically considered strictly for isolated dwellings, we now see onsite and decentralized wastewater management strategies used as a permenant solution for existing and new residential and commercial developments. Such evolution called for the development of better technologies treating sewage before discharging it to the environment in order to avoid exceeding mother nature’s capa-city to handle pollution.

Several new technologies were deve-loped on the basis of downsca-ling processes used in larger sewer plant. Doing so, it created more complex solu-tions using mechanical components such as pumps, blowers, etc. As well as the need for regular maintenance.
Some technologies on the other hand, like the Eljen GSF System, based their development on the principles of simplicity, passivness and reduction of main-tenance requierment. Those systems rely on nature’s slow and natural processes to achieve advanced treatment. They use passive aeration, higher volume or surface for bacteria development, very low loading rate to minimize sludge production. The pollutants are then removed without the need of mechanical components.

The home owner has a lot of choices when it comes to se-lecting an onsite sewage sys-tem. It’s a matter of finding the best for his site and budget.