For two decades, Orenco Systems® has been researching, designing, and manufacturing
innovative technologies for small community wastewater collection systems.
Often called "pressure sewers" or "effluent sewers," more than 200 small community systems
in the United States now use Orenco's Effluent Sewer equipment.
South Alabama Utilities
South Alabama Utilities (SAU), a rural utility on the outskirts of Mobile County,
provides water service to 13,000 customers and gas service to 6,000.
By the late 1990s, new development and potential new customers were heading SAU's way.
SAU realized it needed to provide wastewater services to these new subdivisions or risk losing customer share.
So SAU is building a growing network of utility-managed decentralized wastewater treatment systems,
including Orenco Effluent Sewers and AdvanTex Treatment Systems.
At full build-out, the utility's decentralized collection and treatment systems will have the capacity
to handle half a million gallons of wastewater per day, serving about 2,000 new homes.
Bethel Heights, Arkansas
In 1990 the city of Bethel Heights had only 700 people; today, it has more than 1,800.
Bethel Heights had always relied on individual septic tanks for wastewater treatment,
but septic tanks required a minimum lot size of 3/4 acre.
By the mid-1990s, population growth had increased land prices so much that building
a house on a 3/4-acre lot was no longer cost-effective.
Developers began to de-annex lots from Bethel Heights and annex them to neighboring cities with sewer service,
threatening Bethel Heights' tax base.
To immediately provide the necessary wastewater services to new homes,
Bethel Heights installed an Orenco Effluent Sewer system with about four miles
of main lines delivering effluent to an AdvanTex Treatment System.
They added additional AX100 treatment pods as development progressed.
When all the planned phases are complete, Bethel Heights will have two treatment sites
with two 36-pod arrays and two dispersal fields.
This system will be able to accommodate about 1,000 new homes and businesses.
Diamond Lake, Washington
Installed in 1987, at an average cost of $5,540 per connection (excluding the cost of a treatment lagoon),
Diamond Lake's ProSTEP Effluent Sewer serves more than 500 homes and one of
the largest Boy Scout Camps in the country.
Residents pay only $15 per month for maintenance service.
Best of all, this lakeside community's new effluent sewer system saved Diamond Lake,
restoring it to a pristine condition within three years.
Elkton, Oregon
Installed in 1989, at an average cost of $7,000 per connection, Elkton's ProSTEP Effluent Sewer
and Recirculating Sand Filter serves 100 homes, stores, restaurants, and schools along the beautiful Umpqua River.
Effluent quality coming out of the Recirculating Sand Filter meets Advanced Treatment levels,
with BOD and TSS averaging 6 mg/L.
And documented maintenance for the entire system averages less than one hour per day.
Starbuck, Washington
In Starbuck (pop. 165), individual septic systems began to fail and couldn't
be replaced under present-day regulations.
So in 1999, the citizens built themselves an effluent sewer system that's debt-free today,
thanks to the more than 7,500 hours of volunteer labor they contributed during its construction.
Each household wanting to connect to the system had to supply 80 hours of labor to the project,
which included a collection system, a 20,000 gpd AdvanTex Treatment System,
and drip irrigation of a pasture.
Today, residents pay a base fee of $16 a month, plus $1 per thousand gallons of water used.
The system operator spends about 10 hours a month on operation and maintenance
of the collection and treatment equipment, and BOD and TSS average under 2 mg/L.
International Projects
Orenco has supplied collection and treatment systems
to applications in many countries.
This document describes three of them:
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Goodland Country Estate, Dairy Flat, Auckland, New Zealand
Goodland Country Estate is a residential subdivision with a communal 72-hectare (178-acre) farm.
Innoflow Technologies NZ Ltd. provided an effluent sewer system with
secondary treatment supplied by six AdvanTex AX100 filter pods.
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Puerto Barrios, Guatemala
The 60,000 people of Puerto Barrios, a port city on Guatemala's eastern coast,
had no sewage collection or treatment system.
In 1999, as a pilot project, the U.S. Agency for International development (USAID)
helped a local group build an Orenco recirculating sand filter to serve a neighborhood of 200 people.
It took only a day to train the system's operator.
Because they allow the use of local materials and labor, are easy to maintain,
and are well accepted by community members, Orenco recirculating sand filters
are an appropriate technology for Central America and the Caribbean.
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Anthoussa Beach Hotel, Stalida, Crete, Greece
In 2005, to replace an extended aeration package plant,
Dialynas SA designed and installed a system using eight AdvanTex AX100
textile filter pods to treat wastewater from the rooms and restaurants of this 350-bed resort.
Shops, restaurants, and cafes are located within a few meters of the AX100 units.
Yet because the AX100 system produces no noise or odors, no problems have arisen.
