Wellington inventor provides solution for environmental snag

Septic systems would become safer: an answer for a common environmental problem?

NEWS RELEASE, The Laker, August 2004

Ken Burrows, environmental consultant and inventor, smiles with pride at the suggestion; however, he becomes more serious when discussion turns to his Nova Scotia invention that will make domestic septic systems safer and more reliable.

Burrow's, a QP (Qualified Person), operates a family business that selects septic systems for residential housing and oversees the installation and approval of these on-site systems.

He credits his invention to working for many years as a developer and serving a term as director of Waste Water Nova Scotia Society (WWNS).

MLA Gary Hines, also a director of WWNS, recently congratulated Burrows on his invention, mentioning that the subject of flow balance was a hot topic with the board and Robert Anderson, of the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Labour, at an annual general meeting of WWNS a couple of years ago.

"It is nice to see private sector and government working to provide Nova Scotians with more professional and efficient sewage disposal," Hines said. "The cost of this new device is very minimal, approximately $60 if production costs meet predictions."

Burrows thought up the idea of the flow balancer and took it to the Environmental Innovation Branch of Nova Scotia Environment and Labour.

"The department put me in touch with Mysore Satish at Dalhousie University's faculty of engineering," Burrows said. "Together, we finalized and tested the design."

The device forces the effluent flow into two equal streams. This ensures that the effluent is evenly distributed through the disposal bed. The balanced flow means that the work of filtering the effluent is spread evenly across the disposal bed. The National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program provided funding for prototype development.

"Environment and Labour helped make the connections with the university and the funding agencies to bring this to life," said Burrows.

Nova Scotia Environment and Labour is also providing financial support for the patent application and marketing.

"Assisting environmental innovation is a core business or our Department, said Environment and Labour Minister Kerry Morash. "We're always ready to help make smart ideas like this one become reality."

The developers have applied for a patent and are discussing manufacturing plans. Burrows has been keeping busy in other areas as well.

top of page

Nova Scotia invention fixes common environmental problem

Department of Environment & Labour

A Nova Scotia invention may mean a healthier environment and lower costs for homeowners.

There are more than 100,000 domestic septic systems in Nova Scotia, almost all of which use a network of pipes in a soil bed to disperse treated effluent. If the dispersal pipes are not exactly level, one side of the disposal bed can become overloaded and fail. The failure creates environmental and health risks and the repair is expensive.

A Wellington Nova Scotia septic system consultant, Ken Burrows, came up with idea of the flow balancer to solve the problem. He took it to the Environmental Innovations Branch of Nova Scotia Environment and Labour. "The Department helped us understand what kind of financial assistance might be available and what kinds of test results regulators would need to see," said Burrows. "We finalized and tested the design."

"The concept is simple," said Dr. Satish, "but we needed experimental results to prove the concept and demonstrate its effectiveness to regulators."

The device forces the effluent flow into two equal streams. This ensures that the effluent is evenly distributed through the disposal bed. The balanced flow means that the work of filtering the effluent is spread evenly across the disposal bed.

The National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program provided funding for prototype development. "Environment and Labour helped me make the connections with the University and the funding agencies to bring this to life," said Mr. Burrows.

Nova Scotia Environment and Labour provided financial support for the patent application and marketing. "Assisting environmental innovation is a core business of our Department," said Environment and Labour Minister Kerry Morash. "We're always ready to help make smart ideas like this one a reality."

The developers have applied for a patent and are discussing manufacturing plans.

"This is just the latest in a series of successes we've had working with the engineering faculty at Dalhousie," said Mr. Morash. "Their ability to apply science to real-world environmental management problems means we'll have more successes in the future."

A Nova Scotia invention will make domestic septic systems safer and more reliable.

The Flow Balancer allows septic disposal fields to last longer, meaning less risk to the environment and lower costs for the property owners.

Contact: John Perkins, 
Environment and Labour
Tel: (902) 424-6427
perkinsje@gov.ns.ca

top of page

International Study

A major international study was conducted by the Department of Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering at the University of Dublin in Ireland. This major international study tested numerous distribution devices for the ability to evenly split effluent in gravity-fed septic systems. Distribution boxes, stilling chambers, and splitter tees were all tested for the splitting efficiency under various conditions of off-level and varying degrees of steepness at the entry point to the splitting device. The distribution boxes and stilling chambers were very sensitive to minor off-level settings and were unsatisfactory. The splitting tees performed the best. And the splitting tee with the baffles was superior. The splitting tee with the baffles was Terra Firma's Flow Splitter^®.

The conclusion to the study summarized their findings by stating, "The laboratory trials using clean water shows that the Flow Splitter^® device with the baffles showed the best flow splitting efficiency and was relatively insensitive to a range of off-level installation angles."

 top of page

A Comparison Between Distribution Devices used to Split On-site Wastewater Effluent Between Percolation Trenches

Abstract

ASABE Publication Number 701P1107

 top of page