https://hdl.handle.net/10214/28326

Gibson, Colin M. (2024) Beyond Rural: Cultural and Contextual Considerations for Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Innovations and Applications, University of Guelph - Theses and Dissertations, https://hdl.handle.net/10214/28326

Conventional approaches to sanitation and hygiene often involve the generation of wastewater. Managing the vast quantities of wastewater produced by human activities is a global social and environmental challenge. Access to safe, effective, and reliable water-related services is especially challenging for developing countries, in low-resource or water scarce areas, and in marginalized self-determining regions such as Indigenous reserve communities. Within the past two decades, a growing interest in decentralized wastewater treatment systems has emerged from concepts related to sustainability. The first body chapter of this thesis explores the benefits of decentralized approaches over centralized systems within the context of the mainstream water-sustainability paradigm. How the dominant paradigm is being challenged by an alternative Indigenous water paradigm is also investigated. Using a case study, these concepts are made relevant by relating them to the circumstances, goals, and priorities of wastewater management in Six Nations of the Grand River. Co-developed in partnership with Six Nations Public Works, the following chapter presents results from an assessment that was completed on five medium-scale decentralized wastewater treatment systems operating in the community. The aging systems that were studied are single-pass vertical flow peat moss biological filters (biofilters) and they were evaluated based on contemporary advanced treatment device standards to gauge their longevity and performance capabilities. The third body chapter details a bench-scale study of a multi-soil-layering (MSL) biofilter that is a novel alternative to the peat-based advanced treatment systems studied in Six Nations. Originally conceptualized in the 1990s, the recent popularity of MSLs coincides with the global sustainability agenda, hence the characterization of the system design as a ‘green’ technology. The purpose of the column experiment was to gain insights into how a horizontal orientation impacts internal conditions and system performance. The main results according to each chapter indicate (2) knowledge pluralism has significant implications for re-imagining water infrastructure and better understanding culturally ‘appropriate technologies’, (3) peat-based systems cannot independently reliably provide advanced ‘supplementary’ treatment, but may continue providing advanced ‘basic’ treatment if adequately maintained, and (4) horizontal flow MSLs perform comparatively with vertical flow MSLs in addition to being able to provide more reliable nitrogen removal.