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Solar-powered Sewage Treatment
Some things just need to change. And
so it was in 2004 that leading edge solar-powered technology
replaced the manner in which sewage at Spirit Island had
been handled for the past 80 years. The order, however,
was tall.
At fourteen miles in length Maligne Lake is the largest
natural lake in the Canadian Rockies. Pristine Spirit
Island is located approximately two thirds of the way
down Maligne Lake, accessible only by boat. Any sewage
treatment assembly would therefore have to be low maintenance,
low energy consumption, light-weight and sturdy while
preferably generating no activated sludge and meeting
extra-ordinarily high environmental standards whilst performing
without a sewage field.
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The solution? Leading edge solar-powered technology whereby
sewage receives advanced secondary treatment in a water-tight,
very small, fiberglass basin filled with an engineered
textile material where anaerobic bacteria breaks down
sewage.
That being said there remained the logisitics of construction
in the remote wilderness where man-power replaces machine-power.
A 1500 gallon fiberglass septic tank was towed to the
site aboard two canoes lashed together to create a barge.
Half a million pounds of concrete was transported by boat
and then poured by hand to create the foundation. Rocks
and gravel were hauled to construct the wheelchair ramp,
lumber and shingles and doors and windows and water tanks
and pressure tanks and pumps and solar panels and a ton
of batteries all were moved to the site without the assistance
of a single power tool, barring a boat. It was an exhausting,
labour-intensive effort but worth every bead of sweat
for now there sits on the shore near Spirit Island a showcase
of environmental sustainability and a far more pleasant
visitor experience. |
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