Residential Bioreactor Garden

Graphic of the bioreactor garden growing below a palm tree next to a modern small house. Below ground segements show pipes connecting flow from the house to a septic tank to the bioreactor garden with green vetiver grass growing from the surface

Residential Model

Made for every home, Nature Based Solutions can update your home infrastructure for high-quality clean water. Safe for your family and safe for the environment.

Water quality protects the value of your home and neighborhoods over the lifetime of your home and for future generations.

Home wastewater treatment is an essential element of a functioning septic system, particularly in rocky or sandy soils.

Water reaching groundwater, drinking water, and stream or coastal recreation areas treated by septic systems only in loose soils are not clean enough for safe standards.

After treatment with a bioreactor garden, the water outflow is not only safe enough for recreation and the environment, it even meets agricultural re-use standards.

HOME SYSTEM

Your home is as unique as your family. Custom system sizing and installation can be scaled to fit every space. Healthy water is for everyone!

Footprint of the bioreactor garden, showing relationships between square footage and number of bedrooms. 5BR = 443 sq. ft., 2BR = 177 sq. ft.

Watercolor image of a small home with bioreactor garden along side in a raised bed box.

What to expect

1 Share your information

2 Schedule site visit and infiltration test

3 Design consultation

4 Cost estimate based on design

5 Sign digital contract and submit down payment

6 We prepare & submit Individual Wastewater Permit IWS 1-2 months

7 Assign Construction Dates

8 Regular maintenance, under warranty 2 years

The Bioreactor Garden is a constructed garden and biofilter which is placed downstream of a septic tank for wastewater treatment. Specifically constructed layers of sand and woodchips support efficient nitrification-denitrification cycles for nature-based nitrogen removal. Plants in the top layer of the system provide additional water treatment and removal.

Water comes into the bioreactor garden from a septic tank through a series of covered pipes. The effluent is held in the bioreactor garden for nature-based treatment, reaching a very high water quality before flowing out into the leach field.

Bioreactor Garden graphic showing the process of evapotranspiration, or liquid evaporating through plants drawing up water from the post-septic treatment area and releasing water volume to the atmopshere through evaporation

Understanding Bioreactor Gardens

While these systems are based on simple, natural processes, the implementation requires expertise and precise technical calculations. For example, if you use a limestone media, you can create cement instead of filtration! In order to reach the standards for quality water treatment, precise and correct design, construction, layering, and system loading are essential to ensure proper performance.

HOW IT WORKS

Bioreactor gardens are self-regenerating, and grown with plants from the local environment.

Plants safely draw down nitrogen and phosphorus from septic tank effluent, nourishing the plants while breaking down the nitrogen and phosphorus compounds.

The freed nitrogen is released into the atmosphere or absorbed by the plants in the bioreactor garden. The phosphorus is absorbed in the bioreactor garden.

Unlike other treatment systems that require expert maintenance and care, the self-regenerating bioreactor garden can be operated indefinitely with little or no maintenance by the individual user.