Why Did I Develop This Technology?
Hello, I am a retired engineer who has lived on a lake for many years. My memory of the lake’s pristine water quality is a driving force that began an in-depth study of lake ecology and what causes changes in lakes over time. Septic systems became the main focus of my endeavor.
I have learned that lakes react from activities that take place in the watershed. The water quality of the lake is a reflection of what happens in its watershed. The human footprint, in various ways, causes this change over time. Disruption of the shoreline caused by development in early years, conversion of small seasonal houses to large year-round homes, installation of modern household utilities, warming of the lake water due to climate change, and the creation of landscaped yards all contribute to what D.W. Schindler called “Cultural Eutrophication.”
I began to study septic system performance because the more our lake was exposed to human development, the more the water quality worsened. In July of 1950, the State measured our lake clarity at twelve (12) feet. By July of
1990, the clarity had decreased to three (3) feet.
Although introduction of aeration (oxygenation) did largely reduce the internal phosphorus load and contributed to marginal clarity improvement, the clarity never returned to the 1950 level because the watershed posed a continuous source of phosphorus from both storm water and septic sources.
I have found that after decades of use, the septic system soil absorption field does not remain functional in treating phosphorus; although, it will continue to process the wastewater load.
My conclusion is that newly installed septic systems do attenuate phosphorus. Over time as the soil’s treatment capability is used up, phosphorus moves into the surrounding saturated soil where ground water is hydrologically connected to the lake. This can lead to a phosphorus ground water plume that leaves the adsorption field and moves to the lake.
How can septic systems be relieved of the phosphorus treatment load? This became
my main objective in discovering the Waste Water Conditioning System (also known as “Clear Lake System”) technology. Research and development spanning over four (4) years led to a U.S. Patent approval in 2018. Since then, several demo units have successfully reduced over 90% of the soluble phosphorus responsible for lake eutrophication. Additionally, the Clear Lake System removes 90% of the bacterial load by reducing total coliform by that amount. The end result is less field loading and greater treatment of the waste water in the septic tank.
This website provides educational articles I wrote based on my experience while developing Clear Lake Technology. My hope is that this technology’s widespread use will compliment other advanced onsite waste water treatment systems that do not remove phosphorus and that it becomes the main technology to remove phosphorus before it can harm the lakes and other water bodies. Protection of human health and lake environment will be the ultimate value provided by this technology.
