Boston Water to Receive a Green Upgrade

According to boston.com, water and sewer pipes in our New England state are about to get a big boost. Turns out, Massachusetts is slated to become the proud recipient of $185 million dollars in federal stimulus money and they are planning to use it to update and upgrade long suffering water and sewer infrastructures throughout the state. These are projects that are ready to go right now (about 127 of them in fact) and the designation of funds is going to help create jobs not only in the standard sense but also there is stipulation that 20% of the funds must go toward Green infrastructure projects!

For the complete article please check out Monday’s The Green Blog on boston.com.

Photo taken by Jenn Shon September 2007

The Waterless Eagle

Yesterday my Aunt sent me an article from the Boston Globe about street sweeping in the city of Boston. The title of the article was related to the future of street sweeping and I was immediately curious if this wasteful yet somewhat necessary institution was about to be disbanded due to the recent economic downturn. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to read about a newly unveiled, waterless street sweeper proposed to the city of Boston called the Waterless Eagle.

The Waterless Eagle uses forceful suction and brushes to intake all the dirt and grime, as opposed to simply pushing it forward until it reaches a low point to fall into as a standard sweeper does. In a city demonstration the Eagle managed to suck up dirt that a standard sweeper missed and left the asphalt shiny clean. City officials were certainly impressed but there is one great downfall to the Eagle, the price tag. At $235,000 per unit, to replace all seven city machines during a time of proposed budgetary cuts would be a hit of over $1.6 million so there would need to be some very strong reasoning behind the change other than pretty roads.

During my research I discovered that street sweepers can have a tank with up to 420 gallons of water and as the article states, the seven trucks in operation in the city of Boston (not to mention all the privately owned trucks operating around town) are capable of using over 800 gallons of water per day, each. That is a hefty number especially when considering sweepers are out from spring to fall. In addition to the wasteful aspect of the machines, all that water has to go somewhere. As the machine sprays at the curb the large rotating brushes literally sweep away the dirt, grime and trash leaving this water free to run right into neighboring streams or sewers. Let us not forget all that rock salt or sand that was used over the winter that is now headed straight downstream, compromising waterways and nature in the process.

The Eagle runs on a powerful John Deere motor and can travel as fast as highway speed which means increased efficiency in the time it takes to complete an entire neighborhood. The hopper will hold up to four and a half cubic yards of waste and can sweep a swath of up to ten feet. The hopper and sweep path are comparable to that of a standard sweeper but the most excellent feature of all is the optional fuel systems. The Eagle can be fitted to run on either compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) meaning an immediate savings of fuel cost and emissions city wide.

I am hopeful that the city of Boston will see the benefit of such an efficient and Green machine and invest in at least one for this year as a test run toward greening up the city. Once they find the benefits of such technological advances far outweigh the cost it will only be a matter of time before residents start seeing big white trucks sucking up our grunge as opposed to the well used, once loved, yet completely outdated dirt stained yellow machines of yesterday.

It Is Amazing What One Sees On the Road

This morning while on the way to work I got behind a white van and normally this would not be a special occasion however this truck had the words “Sustainable Wastewater Treatment” emblazoned on the back. As we both pulled up to a light I quickly jotted down the website in my day planner and made a mental note to do some research upon returning home. The name of the company is Clivus New England, they are based out of North Andover, MA and upon reviewing their website I found that not only do they handle residential but commercial wastewater solutions as well.

Clivus offers services in the way of design, permitting and installation, as well as maintenance of both self-contained composting toilets and separate greywater systems. One of their claims on the website is that a client can eliminate nitrogen pollution as well as sewage altogether. Through their greywater system, waste water from sinks, bath tubs, dishwashers and washing machines is captured in a PVC piping system, cycled through a filtration unit and fed into a recycling system outside the home; much like a septic system but without the addition of sewage. Their composting toilet system resides in the basement of the home and all toilets can be attached to the composter through PVC piping. A non-invasive pipe allows for ventilation out through the roof of the home.

The website offers limited information on the exact specifications of each system but it is apparent that this is due in part to the company’s ability to go with the flow of each individual installation (no pun intended). There are sectional diagrams available to get a feel for how the systems work and a contact page to get in touch when the client is ready for their install. They have serviced residences in wooded areas as well as big boys like McDonalds and it appears a good number of clients in between. Although Clivus is located here in Massachusetts I would wager that companies such as this will be springing up nationwide so for those in the market of a new wastewater system, or those looking to renovate an old home with a septic system, I strongly encourage looking into this or another similar company because as we all know, every little bit helps.