Unshaping Growth: The Potential Land-Use Implications of the Sand Filter and Related Alternative Wastewater Treatment Technologies

摘要

Based on 32 interviews and a literature review conducted in September 1980, this report examines the potential land use implications and other environmental effects of small - scale wastewater technologies, with particular attention to the sand filter as a representative system. In the past few years, Federal agencies have been encouraging the use of sand filters and other small - scale wastewater technologies as alternatives to the conventional large - scale community gravity sewage system and the standard individual on - site septic tank - drainfield system. These small - scale technologies promise lower user charges, less consumption of water and other resources, and reduced environmental damage when compared with the gravity systems and central treatment. More precisely, these alternative technologies have the potential for increasing the compactness of fringe and nonmetropolitan growth, accelerating infill, and encouraging development of satellite communities. However, this will happen only if effective land use controls shape growth so the technologies promote these goals; otherwise, the technologies can produce negative consequences. A discussion of the use of small wastewater systems for small communities and rural areas is appended, and lists of persons interviewed and selected technical sources are provided, along with notes.