This is our friend Melvyn,

A bit of a mad professor, but a man who’s ideas on sewage treatment will not only help to save our environment, but could help save you or your organisation a shed load of money. Please take a few minuets to read some interesting facts, and what we think are some very wise words,

All methods of wastewater treatment harness the work of bacteria to break down nutrients and pollutants. In the presence of air (oxygen) things break down, and in the absence of air (oxygen) things build up. The original developers of reed beds used a horizontal flow system. This is where the effluents flow in the top and out of the top of the bed. They normally used a single bed. Sometimes they elongated it, and twisted the flows round and round again.

Vertical flow reed beds achieve 99% reduction in levels of pollutants by being aerobic filter systems. Vertical flow reed bed can work at a rate of 1m2 per person per day. So they are small and effective, and therefore we build them at a comparatively low cost.

We thought that if reed beds had value, then they would treat cattle slurry. Cattle slurry is more easily available and I didn’t fancy diddling about with human sewage. Tests showed the green stuff going into the reed bed, came out a bit of a lager colour, with a 99% reduction in COD, ammonia, nitrates, and phosphates. We thought if this is the case, then who was doing vertical flow reed beds. We were amazed to find only one or two companies, none of which had any of the information we had gathered from months of tests and trials.

Horizontal flows are designed to have standing water, and can smell. The flows of a single bed system will want to collect in the centre, leaving the sides dry and not working, while the centre is too wet to work well. When the flows are elongated to flow round and round, the actual flows cut to the most direct route exasperating the problems of flows in the middle of the beds. Horizontal beds reduce pollutants by 64%, possibly 70%. Some minerals and chemicals can build up over time, causing many problems in the discharge.

Some early systems were built as two parallel systems. So that one system is used for 2 weeks, while the other system rests. This principle alternates every two weeks. The problem we could see with this was that people would forget to change the systems over, on a regular basis. Relying on humans to do things regularly is being optimistic.

It must be said that without the original work of these pioneers, people like us couldn’t develop this ecological technology. We have met many of these pioneers and they are lovely people, some of whom we count as friends.

We saw in the work of Severn Trent Water, that they put a vertical flow reed bed after their horizontal beds, and this vertical bed did the job. I wondered why they didn’t just use vertical flow beds all the time.

Our vertical flow reed beds have the effluent enter the top and leave at the opposite base end. Our figures showed that the very best results were from three consecutive beds, where they were arranged to be stepping down. By dividing the reed bed into three units, by the time the water was collecting in the centre, it was exiting each of the beds, to be spread wide again successively.

With vertical flow we managed to get 99% reductions in pollutants. There was no standing water, and therefore no smell. As it turned out, vertical flow reed beds can be 8 to 10 times smaller than horizontal beds. So a standard household vertical reed bed could be 6 to 10m2. While a horizontal reed bed would need to be 25 to 30 and up to 100m2, according to some suppliers.

We still used the idea of parallel reed beds, but I used it where there were multiples of maybe 50m2 or 100m2. So say a caravan park needed effluent treatment for 200 people, we would build 200m2 as 2 parallel systems, each with a top bed and a bottom bed. This would then be four beds, two top bed and two bottom beds. Should business be good and they want to increase the number of caravans on site, we could simply add more parallel systems of the same size. This helps with the even distribution to each of the parallel systems. In practice it’s a bit of a diddle to get right. So we have re-used this old idea of parallel systems to our advantage.
 
Our priority is to solve the problem, and one main solution is to provide access to this technology by the majority of people.

Community reed beds are brilliant in theory, but even in “green communities” sharing facilities, such as a reed bed, is a minefield. Some people want to do things regularly, while some won’t do anything ever. Those wanting to do things raise a cost, while those not wanting to do anything won’t share or pay for anything.

All the same, Melvyn has built reed beds for communities, and most are working well. Those who want to do things, see there is little to do with an established reed bed. While those who won’t do anything don’t care and would simply call up should something go wrong? Even so, there is always someone who thinks they know better, having read the Internet, set about making improvements that inevitably lead to problems. Then they call up to put things right, denying all knowledge of who possibly could have done these silly things.

A reed bed in the mountains of The Czech Republic led to locals massing to shout their complaints, waving banners, saying they don’t want this western science in their village, and what was wrong with emptying their sewage from their buckets directly in the forest. Luckily Melvyn had met the Mayor, who understood what he was doing and managed to calm the mob down. But there was a moment he thought he was going to be put in a pot and eaten.

Melvyn has been invited to begin building reed beds for villages in South Africa. Melvyn’s theory is to help these people to help themselves. I can’t build every reed bed in the world he said. But my ego believes there is no reason why every reed bed in the world shouldn’t be of my design. So in using local goods, services, and labour, it is the locals who will earn benefits from this work. How far these benefits will reach has yet to be discovered. This is Melvyn mission for the coming years. Our mission at Heffalump is to bring the technology to you at the most economic prices, to help save you or your organisation money, and to decrease the impact that commercial treatment plants have on our planet.

Most Reed beds will pay for themselves within 2- 3 years of installation, and then show a good return on your investment, they will provide a habitat for wildlife, and are a pleasing to the eye. Not only do they do all this but they will also help reduce the CO2 emissions the your current effluent produces whilst going through its treatment cycle.

Please give use a call, and let Heffalump and Melvyn help design your Reed Bed, save you money, and save CO2 emissions.

From soiled water to clean water

Reedbeds