Treating Wastewater Closer To Home

"When addressing the challenge to provide abundant clean energy and water, decentralized solutions are becoming increasingly attractive. By distributing the infrastructure of everything from energy generation to wastewater treatment, you avoid the costly necessity to maintain a grid. Whether it is the electric power grid or underground pipes that deliver water and remove sewage, the more decentralized solutions there are, the more the public infrastructure can be downsized.

In this report by Tom Bartlett, the economic benefits of small scale sewage treatment plants are explained. The cost per home to construct a neighborhood sewage treatment plant is under $2,000, and these small-scale plants will last at least 50 years, with minimal maintenance other than a weekly inspection, and sludge removal every two years. Compare this with the costs to lay "big pipe" to huge centralized water treatment plants - an option that becomes prohibitively expensive the further a development is from an urban center."