OFS’ new Cool Springs Corporate Education Center, which when completed would have a education, logging and recreation facilities,  was too far from an existing wastewater treatment facility to make it economically practical to tie in to an existing municipal wastewater treatment facility. According to OFS, two geotechnical firms investigated soil conditions at the site and determined that a mound system would work but might have a limited life span. Another concern was the infrequent flows during periods when the center is not used.
OFS had a primary goal of building in an environmentally sensitive and sustainable manner. Their desire was to achieve LEED certification for the project under the US Green Building Council’s guidelines.
To support their “green” goals, OFS and architect/engineer Hafer Associates of Evansville, Indiana had three challenges associated with disposing of wastewater from the facility. First, and most importantly, they needed to ensure the onsite wastewater treatment system would not experience any problems and would protect the environment for an indefinite lifetime.
Second, was to treat the wastewater in an environmentally sensitive and sustainable manner without significant operations and maintenance expenses.
The third and final challenge was to construct a wastewater system that would allow OFS to easily expand the educational facility in the future without a huge initial capital investment for an oversized and underutilized treatment plant.
Architect and Project Designer Jack Faber, AIA from Hafer Associates turned to Indianapolis-based Algaewheel Inc. for an onsite wastewater system using proprietary Algaewheel® technology to meet these challenges.
|
