 |
Français | Nederlands | Magyar | Esperanto | English |
| Main page | Summary | Table of contents | Rainwater | Wastewater purification | Dry toilets | Ecological sanitation | |
|
|
Glossary
Developed, adapted and translated by André Leguerrier on the basis of Joseph Országh’s writings.
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5)
Domestic Greywater and Blackwater
Domestic Wastewater Composition
Lagooning Purification Systems
Ramial Chipped Wood Technique (RCW)
Safe Water (or Inoffensive Quality Water)
Wastewater Treatment (Domestic)
Absorption Pit
A pit, trench or well that is usually a few meters deep, filled with permeable material and receiving treated wastewater that will percolate into the ground. When the water table is deep enough and soil permeability permits, an absorption pit constitutes an efficient and inexpensive alternative to a dispersal drain for the treatment of grey water, after its prior treatment through an anaerobic batch reactor. As such, the absorption pit is the end-component of the Basic TRAISELECT System, as an alternative to a dispersal drain. Never discharge black water into an absorption pit.
Activated Carbon Filter
A type of water filter that removes impurities composed of organic molecules, such as pesticide and hydrocarbon residues, detergents, etc. For potable water production, this filter also helps improve taste: considering a concrete cistern, any potential taste of cement is altogether removed. It also eliminates any eventual colouring of the water (yellowish) that could come from sediment fermentation. To prevent bacterial development amongst the activated carbon granules, the filtering component is treated with silver ions. Filtration is thenceforth defined as bacteriostatic. In a PLUVALOR system, an activated carbon filter is not necessary or useful to treat the entirety of water issuing from the well pump system. Activated carbon filtering should be reserved solely for potable water production, by placing it downstream from the microfiltration system’s ceramic filter. Some of the commercially-available ceramic filter systems come already equipped with a bacteriostatic activated carbon filter.
Aeration Tank
A small underground holding tank placed downstream from the anaerobic batch reactor, equipped with an aquarium aerator, to make grey water purification more efficient and reduce grey water odours at the system’s outflow. This is an optional component in both versions of the TRAISELECT System.
Anaerobic Batch Reactor
A two-compartment underground tank that is used as a bioreactor to treat a household’s grey water effluent by holding it for a minimum 2 to 3 weeks during the process. It works biologically whereby anaerobic bacteria will thrive due to the normally warmer grey water temperatures. These bacteria will in turn decompose grease, detergents and soaps contained in grey water, thereby dramatically reducing the pollutant load at the outflow of the tank. This is a fundamental component of the TRAISELECT System.
Aquarium Aerator
Aquarium aeration equipment that is useful for the control of odours in a rainwater cistern. The same apparatus can also be used to reduce odours from treated grey water effluent issuing from a batch reactor. The aeration set-up must also include a bubble diffuser, to be placed at the bottom of the tank.
Artificial wetland
Basic TRAISELECT System
A selective biological grey water purification system. It’s the first component of an approach that aims to treat grey wastewater distinctly from black water. It is not a manufactured off-the-shelf system, but rather a concept accessible to all. The difference between the Basic and Complete systems lies in the finishing process. The Basic system provides for simple infiltration of appropriately treated grey water into the ground via an absorption pit or a dispersal drain. The subsoil makes up the last component of the filtering process, due to its inherent filtering quality. As such, the Basic TRAISELECT system is the least expensive and most efficient solution for grey water treatment in individual wastewater systems. Household grey water is totally recovered to replenish the water table without any waste or pollution.
BEV
The acronym for Bioelectronics of Vincent.
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5)
The amount of oxygen used up by microorganisms as they decompose organic matter contained in water, measured after 5 days of bacterial oxidation. Testing for BOD is done to assess the amount of organic matter in water, especially in the context of wastewater management.
Biocompatible Drinking Water
Concept proposed by Joseph Országh in 1995 [1] based on BEV criteria, which defines drinking water that conforms to values different from those of legally-compliant potable water, and which’s prolonged consumption does not represent a health risk. It is weakly mineralized (less than 250 mg/l), lightly acid to neutral (pH between 5 and 7.5) and chemically «indifferent» or neutral (rH2 below 29). These values are much stricter than for legally potable water. Yet, biocompatible water may also contain a few fecal-contaminated bacteria (less than a dozen per 100ml) and over a hundred common germs. This bacterial content is very well tolerated by the human organism.
Biocontrolling Litter Toilet
See Biolitter Toilet.
Biodynamics
A method of farming that has its basis in a spiritual world-view (anthroposophy, first propounded by Rudolf Steiner in 1924), emphasizing a holistic development and interrelationship of soil, plants and animals in a closed, self-nourishing system. It puts an emphasis on manure-based composts and rejects the use of artificial chemicals on soil and plants. Core aspects of this method are baseEnvironmental performanced on the use of specific plant- and animal-based preparations, which are biocatalysts that operate in minute quantities. Some of the more obscure aspects of biodynamics are not recognized by scientists. Yet, lab tests carried out to investigate the influence of the biodynamic calendar and the use of special preparations on crop growth have shown correlations that current scientific theory cannot explain. Considering its specific technical and spiritual foundations, biodynamic farming is quite unlike organic farming, even if its agricultural achievements are similar.Ecological Sanitation
Bioelectronics of Vincent BEV
A multidisciplinary scientific theory situated at the crossroads of electrochemistry, thermodynamics and biology. It is a scientific branch that was developed in the 1950’s by Professor Louis-Claude Vincent. His research revealed a set of optimal values that were determined to be the most biocompatible for the human organism. It is based on four postulates, which centre upon correlations that exist between proton and electron exchanges in water and its biological properties. By applying the BEV theory, Joseph Országh first proposed a definition for biocompatible water in 1995 [1]. Measurement of the three key bioelectronic values (pH, rH2, and electric conductivity) is but the starting point for various applications in fields as diverse as medicine, metallurgy, and the agro-food industry. Since Professor Vincent’s death in 1986, BEV has made some headway, mainly theoretical, yet little known in scientific spheres. On the basis of Louis Kervran’s theories on biological transmutations, a French biologist, Daniel Pinon, formulated a theory that explains the process of cancer formation, as well as the healing of cancer by the use of medicine that acts upon blood’s bioelectronic attributes.
Bioenergy
A neologism for Biomass Energy
Biolitter Toilet or BLT
A third-generation dry toilet that is actually a collecting device that requires composting at a separate location. It requires the addition of cellulose-rich litter to the toilet contents immediately after toilet use, thereby inhibiting odours. But most importantly, this set-up aims to reclaim the entirety of human dejecta by restoring them as humus into the environment to renew the process of soil formation. In this sense, source-separation of urine and faeces is regarded as regrettable wastage, and a source of pollution.
Biomass energy (Bioenergy)
The intrinsic energy embodied in organic matter that composes the tissues of plants and animals, which is released when chemical bonds are broken by microbial digestion, combustion or decomposition. The energy in biomass is derived from solar energy that has been stored directly in plants through the process of photosynthesis and indirectly in animals that participate in the food chain originating with plants. Biomass is therefore regarded as a renewable energy source. Although current worldwide efforts aim to convert biomass into biofuels for combustion purposes (to generate heat, electricity, transportation fuels, etc.), microbial digestion of biomass to generate heat (via composting) is herein propounded as a more sustainable ecological approach.
Bioreactor
Any device or system that supports a biologically active environment. For grey water, see Anaerobic Batch Reactor.
Black water
Wastewater from WC’s and urinals, including faecal water. Unlike grey water, black water contains lots of nitrogen (98% of urban wastewater comes from WCs) and lots of faecal bacteria contamination.
BLT
See Biolitter Toilet.
BOD5
The acronym for Biochemical Oxygen Demand
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)
A measurement of the overall pollutant load in terms of chemically oxidizable (degradable) solids, especially in the field of wastewater management. Unlike BOD, COD measurements are taken by biological and chemical oxidation in controlled standardized conditions.
Cistern
An underground water-storage tank, built of concrete or limestone/concrete masonry to ensure an ideal mineral balance in harvested rainwater. The underground location minimizes temperature fluctuations and improves water conservation. The cistern will include a distinct sedimentation compartment within, or a remote sedimentation tank, located upstream from the storage tank. Actually, a properly conceived rainwater cistern is none other than the artificial reproduction of a natural underground rock cavity in which water conserves well. Plastic or metal tanks are inappropriate for rainwater storage when considering whole house domestic reuse of harvested rainwater.
COD
Complet TRAISELECT System
A selective biological grey water purification system. It is the first component of an approach that aims to treat grey wastewater distinctly from black water. It is not a manufactured off-the-shelf system, but rather a concept accessible to all. The difference between the Basic and Complete systems lies in the finishing process. In certain instances when subsoil conditions are inadequate to properly filter residual wastewater and prevent its discharge directly into a watercourse or the water table, simple infiltration of grey water in the ground as per the Basic TRAISELECT System is not recommended. This will be the case when a set-up is situated too close to a watercourse, when the grade is too close to the water table or when subsoil quality does not provide sufficient filtering capacity (e.g. in a flood plain, on a soil with lots of fractured rock or where there is very little soil above the rock bed). In such cases, the grey water’s treatment must be completed with two extra steps: a planted trench filter and a constructed wetland finish treatment. This is defined as the Complete TRAISELECT System. The Complete System is less efficient than the Basic System due to greater water loss by evaporation. Yet, this system may sometimes be compulsory when regulating authorities demand compliance with the law (which most often ignores actual site-specific conditions). Some households also choose to install the Complete System in order to dispose of a decorative pond in their garden (or yard).
Composting
When properly done, composting is the artificial reproduction of natural humus formation. The gardener builds his compost by piling up his garden/yard residues, kitchen scraps and other cellulose-based litter. To these, it is best to add animal or human manure for a more efficient composting process and better-balanced compost.
In reality, there are three types of composting techniques: conventional composting for agricultural purposes (as described above), calorigenic composting to produce heat energy, and bioremediation composting, which aims to «de-pollute» soils. The first one combines nitrogen-rich animal biomass with carbon-rich plant biomass. The second one is limited to plant-based biomass, while the third uses other adapted combinations.
Compost Bin
The term «bin» herein applies to those built compost enclosures that are open to the ground. Worldwide, the «composting bin» is a carryall term for all types of compost enclosures, including closed containers or floored enclosures that prevent direct contact of the compost with the soil. These are improper compost enclosures: efficient composting requires that bins be open to the ground, to maintain the necessary migratory link between compost and natural soil for earthworms and other soil fauna that play a decisive role in the digestion of organic matter.
Conductance Meter
Apparatus recommended to check a reverse osmosis filtration unit’s good working order, so that can be determined for example, the exact moment the unit’s membrane needs to be replaced (not too early, nor too late). This is especially recommended for those who produce their own biocompatible water from mains water supply. Water’s electric conductivity is an important parameter in assessing its quality. Drinking water’s conductivity is practically proportional to its electrolyte content (i.e. mineral salts). Water containing lots of mineral salts has a high conductivity. Weakly mineralized water is less conductive. Thanks to the almost linear relationship between salt content and conductivity, measuring the latter provides a good estimate of the residual dry matter in a water sample. One can find digital conductance meters on the market, which measure water’s salinity or dry residual matter.
Constructed Wetland
An artificial marsh or swamp, created for anthropogenic discharge such as wastewater, storm water runoff or sewage treatment. Constructed wetlands can be designed to emulate natural wetland features, to act as biofilters, removing sediments and pollutants such as heavy metals from the water. They usually include impervious bottom linings, sand or gravel media and selected plants for purification.
Conventional sanitation
An anthropocentric approach to sanitation that is mainly concerned with hygienics – preventing the population’s contact with pathogenic germs (sanitize = make clean) – at the expense of global environmental health. Wastewater is first collected and treated, than the liquid effluent is usually discharged in streams and rivers while the solids are usually eliminated by incineration, buried in landfills or spread on agricultural land. Environmental pollution is the outcome in all cases. Also see Wastewater Treatment.
Deep-bedding Housing System
See Deep-litter Housing System.
Deep-litter Housing System
Livestock and poultry housing systems where floors (usually concrete slabs) are covered with litter (most often straw) that must be renewed on a daily basis. These systems represent about 5% of Western industrial livestock systems. They purpose to improve air quality for those people working in such facilities, but when correctly implemented, they also improve animal manure management and disposal by the application of the BLT principle.
Dejecta
Animal of humain excreta, including urine and faeces.
Dispersal Drain
An underground pipe or network of pipes, which aims to infiltrate wastewater directly into the ground. This water dispersion technique is often used at the outflow of individual treatment systems (such as septic tank + leach field systems). As these systems usually service conventional household sewage, infiltration of such treated water in soil will inevitably seep nitrates in groundwater, meaning that efficient black water treatment leads to greater groundwater pollution. Thus, the dispersal drain technique can only be appropriate for infiltration of sole grey water, and only after its prior treatment through an anaerobic batch reactor. As such, a dispersal drain is the end-component of the Basic TRAISELECT System, as an alternative to an absorption pit.
Domestic Greywater and Blackwater
Domestically produced wastewater is a mixture of grey water and black water. The conventional view of sanitation is that these waters must be mixed and treated together. The concept of ecological sanitation is in stark contrast to the « all-to-the-sewer » logic of a water-borne sewage system, which is also consistent with a « throw-away » philosophy. The composition of both water types being different, their selective treatment presents advantages.
Domestic Wastewater Composition
|
Black water |
Grey water |
|
Water from WC’s and urinals |
Water from bathing, dishwashing, laundry, and cleaning. |
|
Organic matter containing phosphorus and nitrogen About 98% of nitrogen in wastewater is found in black water, completely organic. Organic nitrogen: approx. 9 kg per person annually.
|
Organic matter containing sulphur and phosphorus, but no nitrogen Surface-active substances: soaps, detergents.
|
|
Organic phosphorus of metabolic origin, Approx. 1 kg per person annually. |
Mineral phosphorus from laundry in the form of mineral phosphates. |
|
Very large number of fecal contaminated bacteria. |
Little fecal contaminated bacteria. |
|
Micro-pollutants: medicinal residues, antibiotics, hormonal molecules (oestrogen) biocides used in WC maintenance. |
Micro-pollutants: additives to laundry, dishwashing and cleaning products. Softeners, lens cleaners, enzymes, etc. |
|
Always cold |
Hot or warm (important pour treatment) |
|
Represents about half the global domestic wastewater pollutant load, expressed in COD (chemical oxygen demand) |
Drainage Well
See Absorption Pit.
Dry Toilets
Toilets that evacuate human excreta without their being discharged in water. Contrary to standard views, all dry toilets do not have the same impact on the environment. They can be classified along different criteria. For example, self-contained systems are usually classified as internal or external composting toilets. Dry toilets can also be classified by their method of operation, which has led us to define three generations of dry toilets.
EAUTARCIE
A neologism (pronounced «Oh-Tar-See») for «Water Autarky», which abbreviates from the French «EAU», meaning «water», «AUTARCIE» meaning «autarky», or a self-sufficient system independent of outside influences.
EUTARCIE System
One of the possible forms of ecological sanitation, which goes to the source of the problems and proposes efficient, simple and inexpensive solutions, including rainwater harvesting for whole-house reuse, selective treatment of dejecta through the use of biolitter toilets and composting, and selective grey water purification. In short, the concept of EAUTARCIE seeks to restore domestic water-related activities within nature’s great cycles: water, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus.
Ecological Sanitation
A holistic reuse-oriented approach to sanitation that is concerned with sustainable environmental practices, notably reuse and recycling of water and biomass in a hygienically safe, closed-loop system. It is also concerned with the influence of sanitation installations on land’s soil moisture regime. Unlike conventional sanitation, household water supply is also a fundamental concern in ecological sanitation.
ECOSAN
A neologism for Ecological Sanitation.
Environmental Performance
A set of environmental parameters that are taken into consideration within ecological sanitation. The evaluation of a sanitation system goes beyond the notion of simple wastewater purification efficiency to include a holistic assessment of its impacts on the environment, including energy and water consumption, air, water and land pollution, disruptions to the soil moisture regime, recycling versus waste production, land remediation, humus regeneration, etc.
Eutrophication
The excessive multiplication of algae in rivers, lakes or seawaters. It is the result of too high nitrate content in the water. The presence of small quantities of phosphates is equally necessary for eutrophication.
Filter Pit
A collecting device that goes at the bottom of gutter downspouts to intercept leaves and other organic residues and prevent them from entering the rainwater cistern, thus reducing cistern maintenance. It is typically set in the ground at the convergence point of multiple downspouts, upstream from the cistern.
First Flush Water Diverter
A system or device designed to reduce contaminant influx in a rainwater cistern by diverting the first portion of the flow from a roof catchment at the start of a first rainfall, following an extended dry spell. The water volume that needs to be diverted is usually sized with respect to roof area and predicted flow rates. This device is installed upstream from the cistern, and downstream from roof downspouts.
Grey Water
Domestic wastewater from bathing, dishwashing, laundry, and cleaning, as opposed to black water.
Grey Water Batch Reactor
Humanure
A neologism coined by Joseph Jenkins (author of The Humanure Handbook), a fusion of the words «Human manure», to define human dejecta (combined faeces and urine) to be composted.
Humus
A brown organic matter resulting from the decay of plants and animals. It is a substance of great complexity that is always present in arable land and is the basis of soil’s natural fertility and intrinsic structure.
Hydrophor System
A well-pump system that necessarily involves the use of a pressure tank to regularize household water pressure and reduce pump cycling. See Well-pump System.
Inhabitant-equivalent (or IH)
Definition for the amount of substance released by one person, legally defined (in Belgium) as representing 60 g/day of BOD5 contained in 180 litres of wastewater. This value is the mean value measured in combined wastewater, containing black water and grey water.
Jean Pain Method
A compost-based bioenergy system developed by Jean Pain that produced 100% of his energy needs. By aerobic composting of brushwood, he heated water to 60°C at a rate of 4 litres a minute, which he used for washing and heating. By applying an anaerobic process to the same compost materials, he also distilled enough methane to run an electrical generator, cooking elements and his truck.
Lagooning Purification System
See Wetland Purification System.
Leaf Interceptor
A device that goes at the top of gutter downspouts to intercept leaves and other organic residues and prevent them from entering the rainwater cistern, thus reducing cistern maintenance and premature clogging of filters in the household’s water purification system.
Microfiltration
A water filtration process that aims to remove bacteria below one micron in diameter. It does not modify water’s chemical composition: solutes (dissolved salts) remain in water. Microfiltration removes contaminants from water by its passage through a microporous membrane, such as a ceramic membrane. It’s an interesting alternative to chemical disinfection, without its drawbacks (i.e. the altering of water’s electrochemical and biological properties). Microfiltration is often completed with additional activated carbon filtration in order to remove organic chemical pollutants (e.g. pesticides), bad smell and taste. When combined with activated carbon, microfiltration is useful to make rainwater (or any other chemically-suitable water) potable, when bacterial content is a concern. Microfiltration’s usefulness is dubious if considered to improve mains water supply, since bacteria in such water have already been chemically killed off. It is totally useless for water that is chemically inadequate.
Pedogenesis
The process of soil formation, which goes through two stages. First, the fracturing and breaking-up of rock by erosion and freezing. Second, organic detrition resulting from all plant and animal life that thrives in topsoil. This natural process occurs in symbiosis with plant cover and soil organisms. It’s the most important element of the biosphere to regulate a land’s soil moisture regime. It takes only a few dozen years of intensive agro-chemical farming to totally destroy a dozen centimetres of arable soil that took thousands of years for plants and soil organisms to generate.
Peri-urban Zones
Urban-rural fringe areas, where the countryside meets city peripheries or suburbs. In these areas, especially with single-family housing, the use of BLTs is technically feasible, and selective greywater treatment with the TRAISELECT system can be realized within the garden (or yard).
pH
The acronym for «potential hydrogen» : a unit measure of the hydrogen ion concentration in a fluid. The range of pH values extends from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. Figures below 7 express increasing acidity, and those above 7 express increasing alkalinity.
Planted Soilbox Filter
A variant of the planted trench filter (plants, drainage layer, impervious bottom), but built as a wooden box set aboveground. This solution is sometimes necessary when the wetland pond in which the planted filter must discharge is at a slightly higher elevation. When site topography permits, a trench in the soil is the better solution than the soil box.
Planted Trench Filter
A grey water filtration system that is a simple trench in the ground with a gravel or pebble drainage substrate for plants (without soil), and an impervious bottom lining. It is designed to allow grey water to filter through it while plants grow on top of it. In the trench substrate, the plant roots fill in the voids to form a sort of filtration sieve. It’s important to point out that this is not a purification system using plants. As grey water issuing from an anaerobic batch reactor is nitrogen-free, plants don’t absorb elements from the water. Their role is simply limited to physical filtering of suspended particles in grey water.
PLUVALOR
A neologism that has double meanings in French. It comes from the words «PLUie», meaning « rain » and «VALORisation», meaning « valorization » combined in a word that suggests added value (« plus-value ») for the home. The suffix «OR» meaning «gold» is symbolical of water as a precious substance.
PLUVALOR System
A rainwater harvesting and recycling system for whole-house reuse, including drinking water. It is not a manufactured off-the-shelf system, but rather a concept accessible to all.
Potable Water
Water that is generally considered fit for human consumption. Actually, «potable water» is a legal concept defined by law. Such water must comply with fifty or so physicochemical and microbiological parameters, yet it doesn’t provide full safeguards for a person’s health. Furthermore, legal limits for potable water vary between countries: the same water can be considered «potable» in one country, and not «potable» in a neighbouring country. In many countries, «potability» is imposed on all water intended for consumption. To establish legal limits on potable water’s microbiological parameters, rather than doing epidemiological studies on the human organism’s tolerance levels, legislators have simply imposed standards that in fact, make chemical disinfection inescapable. Such disinfection is detrimental to a person’s health.
Purification Efficiency
The measurement standard that is used in conventional sanitation to measure the degree of elimination of wastewater’s pollutant load after having gone through a treatment system. It is calculated as the ratio between the pollutant load that enters a facility (as untreated water) and that which exits the same facility (as treated water), expressed as a percentage.
Rainwater Harvesting
The process of collecting, filtering and storing water from rooftops, paved and unpaved areas for multiple uses. For whole house reuse, see the PLUVALOR System.
Ramial Chipped Wood Technique (RCW)
A technique that seeks to emulate the way deciduous forests generate humus in soils, using branches from hardwood species that are chipped so as to be spread and incorporated in cultivated (and degraded) soil as an organic amendment. RCW constitutes one of the techniques available to regenerate damaged ecosystems, just like the Jean Pain method and the Paul Moray tree seeding technique.
Revers Osmosis
A liquid filtering process that is often used for water. It works by using high pressure to force a solution through a semi-permeable membrane, retaining the dissolved salts and other solutes on the surface of the membrane and allowing the pure solvent to pass to the other side. It typically filters particulates, micro-organisms, organic compounds and ions above 0.5 nanometres in diameter. Unlike microfiltration, reverse osmosis modifies water’s chemical composition. For each litre of filtered water obtained, such a system will use up – and reject – 3 to 10 litres of water used to backwash the membrane of its accumulated impurities. Nowadays, reverse osmosis is an inevitable technique for those who wish to get biocompatible drinking water from mains water. It relinquishes (fortunately) some of the mineral salts in water after filtration. In contrast to what filtering system dealers will recommend, it is actually detrimental to place a primary filter upstream from the reverse osmosis unit in order to remove the last trace minerals from water.
rH2
A measurement of the available electrons in a fluid, providing an indication of oxidation/reduction potential. The range of rH2 values extends from 0 to 42, with 28 being redox neutral. Values above 28 are considered oxidizing (with respect to chemically pure water), below 28 reducing. The rH2 unit is one of the 3 key values considered by BEV.
Safe Water (or "Inoffensive-quality" Water)
Concept launched by Joseph Országh in 1996, as «inoffensive-quality water» (eau de «qualité inoffensive») [2]. Even if it is not of « potable » quality, the accidental absorption of small amounts of such water can in no way be harmful to someone’s health. It can be used for all domestic non-food purposes. Starting from harvested rainwater, safe water is obtained by simple 10-micron filtering. Safe water is a key element for sustainable water management worldwide. Its use derives directly from ecological sanitation’s first principle, i.e. adapt water quality to its end-use. Using expensively-produced potable water for all domestic usages is totally unreasonable, and quite incompatible with sustainable water management practices. The concept of sanitary water at household faucets that is reserved for other purposes than human consumption is starting to make headways, even being qualified as a «new paradigm» in water management.
Saniation
Sawdust Toilet
A variant of (or equivalent to) the biolitter toilet, functioning along the same basic biolitter principle, but where sawdust is the preferred litter used, as developed by Joseph Jenkins (author of The Humanure Handbook) [3].
Sedimentation Tank
A tank through which harvested rainwater or wastewater is passed so that suspended matter may settle to the bottom.
Sewage
See Black Water.
Soakaway
See Absorption Pit.
Soil Moisture Regime
The manner by which precipitation is distributed on land, between surface run-off, infiltration in soil and evaporation. In this sense, the moisture regime is an integral part of the water cycle.
TRAISELECT
A
neologism that abbreviates from the French words « TRAItement
SÉLECTif » (selective treatment).
TRAISELECT System
See Basic TRAISELECT System or Complet TRAISELECT system
TT
See Turbo-toilet.
Turbo-toilet or TT
A term coined by Joseph Országh to define a potential «next-generation» biolitter toilet system that could provide the convenience of a WC while conforming with the biolitter toilet principle (combining cellulose-rich litter with nitrogen-rich toilet effluent). The airplane-type toilet would include a grinder to pulverize the dejecta and a pressurized ultra-low-volume flush to convey the resulting effluent through a pressurized (low-pressure) plumbing network. The system would require new types of plumbing and/or sewerage networks reserved exclusively for black water conveyance, to bring the effluent concentrate to a remote litter-impregnation tank and ultimately to a biomass treatment centre, for composting. At the outset, such toilets would be well adapted to high-density housing or luxury hotels located in environmentally sensitive sites. The overall system could also be easily incorporated in new neighbourhood developments.
Wastewater (Domestic)
Domestic wastewater that is discarded either as grey water, black water or both combined. In conventional sanitation, both types of wastewater are combined and treated together. In ecological sanitation, the impetus is to not produce black water. If black water must be produced, it will be collected and treated separately from grey water.
Wastewater Treatment (Domestic)
Domestic wastewater treatment (or sewage treatment), is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff (effluents) and domestic. It aims to reduce environmental impact caused by wastewater disposal. To this end, conventional sanitation advocates discharging water that is as clean as possible, back into the receiving milieu, while disregarding other consequences (including those from sewage sludge and chemical treatment). Conventional treatment techniques consist in eliminating the pollutant load by biological oxidation, and by various chemical processes. The impetus is to discharge purified water back into surface water. In contrast, ecological sanitation does not aim to purify water, but rather endeavours to restore domestic activities within nature’s great cycles. Overall, this approach yields the least harmful environmental impacts.
Water Closet (WC)
A flush tank toilet (as opposed to dry toilets)
Water Table
That part of the subsoil that is totally saturated with groundwater. It is an underground stretch of water located above impervious subsoil strata, forming a relatively horizontal layer, varying in thickness from a few centimetres to a few meters, and even hundreds of meters thick. It is replenished by infiltration from water precipitation. Water tables constitute our main groundwater reserves. In the absence of pollution, water quality is only influenced by the geological formations through which water percolates. Pollution (e.g. agricultural, industrial) takes a certain time to reach the water table. This «percolation time» varies from a few years to a few centuries, depending on the depth of the water table and the nature of the geological formations through which water migrates. A polluted underground water reserve can result from chemicals spread on land by farmers perhaps dozens of years prior. Remediation of a polluted water table is therefore a slow process. Even if pollution ceases immediately, the first signs of improvement will only show up at the end of the percolation stage. Comparatively, surface water such as in a river, can be «de-polluted» within a few years after pollution stoppage. And again, rainwater pollution immediately disappears after stoppage of atmospheric pollution. This means that in a foreseeable future, rain will constitute the sole source of quality drinking water worldwide, accessible to all. Furthermore, water from water tables, even when disregarding current pollution problems, is most often loaded with calcium carbonate (e.g. hard water) or other mineral salts. It is rarely biocompatible. To ensure sustainable agriculture and ecosystem preservation, replenishing water tables is indispensable. This can only be assured by sufficient ground plant cover, and especially by the presence of humus in soil.
Water tank level gauge
Apparatus used to measure a rainwater cistern’s water level. Different technologies are available, such as float/weight/pulley systems, digital ultrasonic systems, or manometer-type capillary tubing assemblies, commonly sold by the fuel tank industry and becoming increasingly available in the rainwater harvesting industry. The latter usually indicate the fluid level as a percentage, 100% corresponding to a full cistern, 0% representing an empty one.
WC
See Water Closet.
Well-pump System
A household pump system that pressurizes and injects water from a cistern or a well in the home’s plumbing system. When the set-up includes an intermediate pressure tank (with appropriate pressure-switch) to regulate water supply at the faucets, that is when we call it a hydrophor system.
Wetland
An area of land which’s soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water. Wetlands include areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water (as defined by the Ramsar Convention)
Wetland Finish Treatment
A grey water filtration system that is a constructed wetland designed as a simple decorative pond with a waterproof bottom lining. The pond is the finishing-off stage of the Complete TRAISELECT System. In the pond, daylight is the primary bio-filtration catalyst.
Wetland Purification System
A constructed wetland system that is used to purify wastewater, or otherwise-polluted water. It complies with conventional sanitation imperatives: purify wastewater to obtain pure water, while disregarding everything else. Plants are called upon to absorb nitrogen and phosphorus (tertiary treatment). They also harbour bacterial colonies that play a specific role in the purification process. This is quite unlike TRAISELECT’s wetland finishing system, which is a grey water filtering system. In the present case, we are talking about a more complex lagooning system, i.e. a wastewater treatment system, which can only be justified when persisting in the use of WC flush toilets. It is definitely not an ecological sanitation technique.
[1] Ref.: J.Országh, « La bio-électronique et l'eau alimentaire », 1er Symposium International sur la bio-compatibilité de l'eau, des boissons et de l'alimentation ; (i.e. «Bioelectronics and Water for Consumption», International Symposium on Biocompatibility of Water, Drinks and Food »); Niederbronn-les-Bains (Alsace), March 23-24 1995.
[2] Ref.: J.Országh and P.Lor, « PLUVALOR & TRAISELECT: introduction à la gestion écologique de l'eau dans la maison. (i.e. « PLUVALOR & TRAISELECT: Introduction to Ecological Water Management at Home), Editions Enviroways, Université de Mons.
[3] Ref.: J. Jenkins, «The Humanure Handbook : A Guide to Composting Human Manure » ; published by Joseph Jenkins Inc., 1st edition in 1994, 3rd edition in 2005.
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x