Camphill Village Kimberton: An Ecovillage in our Backyard!



As mentioned on our group blog Ecovillage Evolution, Kimberton is part of the Camphill Village movement. This movement began in Scotland and now has many villages throughout the world. Members of these villages are also natives from various parts of the globe. Camphill Villages emphasize ecologically sound living principles and community conviviality while recruiting members with disabilities, giving them a chance to be productive in life.

This village is in close proximity to Philadelphia, located in a town called Kimberton, Pennsylvania. The JEM group was given a personalized tour for over 2 hours around the village observing the low impact modes of living.

I was informed by Diedra, one of the coordinator's of the village/ tour guide, an array of information pertaining to water, waste, recycling and sewage.

Water, like most ecovillages, is seen as a precious necessity to life. Looking after its health is of utmost importance at Kimberton. Along its rivers they maintain riparian buffer zones to prevent runoff, contaminants and other threats to the health of the water. The also took out many invasives. All water is sourced from the creek and a well, which are both located on the 422 acre property.

They use a cistern to collect toilet water, landscape water and laundry water while rain water is collected in specialized catchment areas. They use a Wetlands mimicking system to purify their gray and black water. It purifies sewage for about 50-60 people. They also use flow forms to add oxygen to the water to help purify it.

Conservation is also key here. They use low-flow-toilets and shower heads and even have 2 composting toilets.

The community tries very hard to watch its trash output. They donate clothes, have rummage sales, make art out of old jeans and monitor carefully them amount of trash they produce. There craftiness is a communal attempt towards internal recycling. They collect food from Kimberton Whole Foods and Tritter Joes and consume what they can, feeding the pigs and composting. Recyclable items are sent to Pottstown by local services. There trash is collected by the local service.

All in all I was very impressed to have seen the village firsthand and witness the wonderful things being done! A+ to Kimberton! Thanks for allowing our visit!

Photo courtesy of EcoVillage Ithaca

Ecovillage of the Week I: Ithaca (EVI) - Recycling, Water, Waste, Sewage

Recycling, aside from their rigor of reusing, is done simultaneously with day-to-day activities. Carts full of metals, glass, compost, paper, plastic and trash are collected. It is often times moved in one trip, revealing EVI's efforts of re-usage and minimalistic consumption. Anyhow composting is successfully practiced with brown matter being put over green. When it heats up it turns to rich, odorless humus. This can be used later as nutrients for crops.

There is a common dumpster where 160 of the residents deposit their trash in a 108-cubic-foot dumpster. This is a quarter of what the typical U.S. housing development generates per week. For the recyclables, there is a shed that has bins for each item. They are collected by the local Municipal service. It is diversely successful. Lastly there is a "reuse room" where residents can donate clothing, shoes, toys and other goods. It's all so well planned!

Sewage and water at Ithaca, like anywhere else, are of utmost importance. Water is perceived as a dire necessity and conservation is extremely crucial. Water use is limited daily, while many residents have composting toilets or toilets that use minimal water in comparison to conventional toilets. Plants that are grown there are intended to use little water, while the watering of them primarily occurs in the evening, to inhibit rapid evaporation. Rainwater is avidly collected, where gutters transfer it to the pond or rain barrels collect it. It is also transferred to an underground cistern, to be drawn from for later usage. It's used for watering plants and quenching the thirst of animals.

Sewage treatment is still linked to the local municipalities system mostly because an alternative treatment system is out of EVI's current price range. They would like to see a "Living Machine" implemented however it may be pricey so they think a wetlands or reed bed system may be more likely. In the meantime, houses are equipped with dual piping systems that separate gray water from black water. The next step is to build a filtration system to cleanse the gray water.

Sources:
Walker, Liz. Ecovillage At Ithaca Pioneering A Sustainable Culture. New York: New Society, 2005.

The Living Machine

The Living Machine; What exactly is it? The Living Machine have been defined as a "decentralized waste water treatment system that mimics processes found in wetland environments" and provides tertiary sewage treatment to allow dirty water to be used for irrigation, bathing and toilets. It is a remarkably innovative technology that seeks to lessen the usage of water as well as the energy put into water treatment. It breaks away from centralized sewage treatment by using natural, biological principles to treat water.

The machine itself is backed by mechanical operations and computer systems, which allow a self regulating pseudo-environment. The machine works in succession. First a series of tanks are meticulously arranged by design. Each tank "contains an ecosystem built up with materials gathered from the wild or other Living Machines" (Bang 165). The components of the ecosystem consist of microorganisms, invertebrates, fish, plankton, shrubs, flowers and mollusks. All of them provide a critical role in the overall purification process of the water treatment.

The machine is responsible for organizing and developing its own ecosystem. Then each organism is carefully assigned its tank or specific area, depending upon which biological function it will perform and carry out. The organisms literally "live off pollutants" and as the sewage enters each tank, it gradually becomes cleaner and cleaner until the end (Bang 167).

The end is when the organisms known as the "scrubbers" process and clean the water one last time to prepare it for irrigation and sometimes drinking. Living Machines can process anywhere from 2,500 - 200,000 gallons of water! It also conserves water. A zoo in the Netherlands cut its water production by 84% (Worrell 3). This helped to lower water bills and increase revenue for separate usages.

The Living Machine is a highly researched, relatively new approach towards sewage treatment, but it's popularity and development are increasing. Not only is it a more environmentally friendly approach to confronting the impediment of sewage, but it is aesthetically appealing to people of all ages. In fact it may be hard to tell you are in one! Only time will reveal the succession of this spawning, technologically innovative achievement. More posts to come!

Sources:

Bang, Jan Martin. Ecovillages A Practical Guide to Sustainable Communities. New York: New Society, 2005.

Worrell. "Living Machine Systems: Treating Wastewater Nature's Way." The Living Machine. 2008. Worrell Water Technologies LLC. 23 Mar. 2009.

Sewage, Water and Waste

There are many attributes that contribute to the overall synergistic success of an ecovillage. In dealing with issues like sewage, water and waste one is left with the question of how to deal with these matters in a sustainable fashion. Many rural ecovillages are connected to the local towns sewer main or have a biological means of breaking down wastes via microorganisms , obtain and collect water from local sources or rain and deal with waste by recycling, reducing, reusing and composting. In an urban setting, things are a bit more difficult. For example a city like Philadelphia has thousands of row homes interconnected throughout the city. If a particular community were to establish sustainable systems of the aforementioned aspects, how would they go about doing so? What are the boundaries from one community to the next? Who can implement, regulate and maintain such systems?

These and many of questions will be addressed throughout this blog in posts to come. But first it is important to mention the what kind of technologies exist and how to apply them to an urban setting in a practical way.

Many ecovillages have self-sustaining systems which break down sewage and excess water. There are two types of waste water; Black water and gray water. Black water is waste water that contains fecal matter (sewage). It is very difficult for it to break down in a natural setting however, much thought has been put into how to develop a sustainable means of dealing with it. With all the energy/materials cost put into sewage transport and purification processes, it would be more logical to have the sewage system local. Technologies such as "reed-bed technology" or sewage gardens are a sustainable, autonomous solution to the problem. Reed bed systems work as followed

"Reed beds use common reed plants (phragnmites communis, a second cousin of the common marsh plant) to dewater solids in a confined area. The beds can be any shape to accommodate existing land conditions and areas. Specially designed ponds with underdrains covered by a sand and gravel mixture are constructed and filled with reed plants. Modified sludge drying beds also work well and are an ideal retrofit. They already have side walls, layers of sand and gravel, an underdrain system which collects and carries away filtrate, and an impervious membrane liner. Solids are pumped into the reed beds. Dewatering occurs through evaporation, plant transpiration, and decantation. Decanted water seeps through the bottom of the bed and through the layers of sand and gravel into the underdrains, traveling back to the wastewater treatment plant for secondary treatment. During dewatering the solids change from liquid to "cake." Six inches of solids and water will compress to a half inch of solid cake. The cake is left in the bed and the process is repeated. Sludge reed beds are a significant improvement over existing drying beds. Sludge can be dewatered and converted into biomass and a low-grade compost without chemical addition or energy. They have lengthy turnover time and are capable of reducing sludge volumes by up to 95% over time."

The technology is innovative, however in an urban setting spacial issues would present an indefinable challenge. Also it may be difficult to implement based on zoning laws, income levels, social participation and willingness to accept.

The second, more feasible type of water treatment is with gray water. Gray water is the water left over after showering, doing laundry and dish washing. It is ideal for houses to be equipped with two sets of drainage pipes: one for black water and one for gray so each can travel separately for further treatment without unnecessary mixing. A filtration system would be needed to filter out soaps, shampoos, etc... The benefits of collecting grey water are beneficial and less energy intensive. It can be used to water plants, to clean, brush teeth, etc... The hardest part of implementing such a system would be financing, design, maintenance, and government approval.

The technology is there but many hurdles keep it's implementation small scale. It is slowly catching on. More posts to come.....

Sources:
http://www.lagoonsonline.com/reedbeds.htm

Barton, Hugh. Sustainable Communities The Potential for Eco-neighbourhoods. Minneapolis: Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2000.

Walker, Liz. Ecovillage At Ithaca Pioneering A Sustainable Culture. New York: New Society, 2005.