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Re: Small Business - Success Stories
2010-09-30 23:26:40 UTC
My enterprise has not got any successful result. But I know an environmental success story that I want to share with you.
Forestville California
Outline of Need: In the mid 1980s the California State North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board issued an action plan mandating that Forestville County Sanitation District (CSD) discharges to the Russian River and tributaries be treated to Advanced Wastewater Treatment Standards, a tertiary treatment process. Moreover, the adjacent community of Mirabel Heights, served by septic tanks with a 71% failure rate, was declared a public health hazard due to contamination of surface and ground water by human wastes. This was also having a direct impact on the health of the river.
How Rural Development Helped: Working together with local community leaders, regulatory agencies and congressional leaders, a two-phased solution was derived. The first phase involved construction of a centralized sewage collection system in Mirabel Heights along with a force main to pump the sewage to the Forestville CSD treatment plant. The second phase will upgrade the Forestville CSD treatment plant to meet the more stringent tertiary treatment standards. Pipelines will also be constructed that will enable the tertiary treated effluent to be used for irrigation by local schools and parks. Rural Utilities Service funding in the amount of $5.7 million was leveraged with $1.3 million from Sonoma County and $1 million from the EPA to accomplish the $8 million project.
Results: Some of the many positive environmental benefits from this project include:
Resolution of an existing threat to public health.
Protection of an important recreational river and fisheries habitat.
Protection of the quality of the groundwater supplies.
Abandonment of the failing septic tanks in Mirabel Heights that were contributing to both groundwater and surface water pollution.
Conservation of water in a region that experiences drought and water shortages. There will be an annual savings of 40-50 acre feet of potable water by using the tertiary treated effluent to irrigate public facilities instead of well water.
helen white
United States
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