Infrastructure Models for Ecological Wastewater Management - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 404

C onventional t eChnologies
Even in countries that enjoy a high level of infrastructure support, like the United
States, single-home (onsite) treatment systems are very common. Onsite systems
serve approximately 25 percent of the U.S. population and 33 percent of new home
construction (U.S. Census Bureau 1990). Because the United States has been a rela-
tively water-rich country, the primary technical focus has been on below-ground
dispersal of wastewater (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] 1980). These
systems typically employ a settling tank (septic tank) and underground distribution
pipes. This technology has essentially remained unchanged since the early part of
the nineteenth century, as illustrated in Figure 20.2.
The use of “old” wastewater technology is of little benefit to Iraq because a primary
focus of implementing sewage treatment will be to produce water of sufficient qual-
ity for reuse. In the last 20 years, there has been considerable interest in decentralized
wastewater management in the United States (EPA 1997) that has led to the develop-
ment of a variety of compact treatment systems (EPA 2002). While the majority of
these devices use pumps and other mechanical support systems, some systems, such
as subsurface-flow constructed wetlands, are suitable for widespread adoption around
the world.
FIGURE 20.2 1927 Sears Roebuck advertisement for a single-home septic system. Reprinted
with permission from Crown Publishers, Inc.