Petz designed the passive gravity system to handle 1,999 gpd with an average flow of 1,200 gpd. Echo Lake Park is on the National Register of Historic Places, and its pristine lake is renowned for fishing and wildlife. Soils are highly weathered fractured metamorphic bedrock with a percolation rate of 10 to 30 minutes per inch. Because the lodge manager wanted minimal interference with tourist traffic, installation began in September, with its genuine possibility of snow and no rescue by county plows. The only moving part in the aerobic, packed-bed bioreactor is an above-ground blower. Petz chose a FAST (fixed activated sludge treatment) unit from Bio-Microbics. “Our biggest challenge was holding the design below 2,000 gpd to keep the price affordable,” says Petz. The replacement system had to handle high-strength waste, intermittent heavy flows, require minimal maintenance, and start up immediately when the lodge opened in spring. The lodge, located at 10,600 feet elevation on a mountain in the Arapaho National Forest, is open May through September and experiences frequent two- to three-hour power failures. “The problem was high-strength waste discharging to a moderately over-excavated drainfield that couldn’t treat it.” “We don’t have soil here we have primarily bedrock,” says co-owner Richard Petz, P.E. An employee at Denver Water recommended All Service Septic, an engineering/design firm in Arvada. The lodge owner, Denver Parks and Recreation, hired a pumper to clean the 2,000-gallon septic tank twice a week as officials searched for a solution. The lodge has a full commercial kitchen, 45-seat restaurant, and gift shop. Get Repair articles, news and videos right in your inbox! Sign up now.Įffluent running out of the observation port and ponding in the drainfield alerted the manager of Echo Lake Lodge in Idaho Springs, Colo., to a serious problem.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |