Sustainable Development in the Atlanta Suburbs

Serenbe, a “New Urbanism” neighborhood in the Chattahoochee Hills about 30 miles southwest of Atlanta, faced some severe wastewater challenges about 15 years into their development. As a result, Integrated Science & Engineering (ISE) reached out to AquaPoint to assist with the solution. While AquaPoint had several installations in the region, we had never worked with ISE and were excited to pursue the project. Furthermore, ISI had a very strong working relationship with Newman Utilities, a major player in this rapidly developing rural area.

As the ISE engineer explained, they were interested in using our Bioclere product as a replacement for an existing “coming to the end of its serviceable life” system. Not only was the existing system severely undersized given the growth taking place in Serenbe, but in addition more stringent effluent standards (< 30 mg/L  BOD & TSS & < 10 TKN) were now mandated as well.  A final priority for ISE was to integrate our treatment system within a previously constructed wetland.

Once ISE accepted our initial proposal, there was a fair amount of back and forth on potential designs, but eventually they settled on four of our biggest Biocleres (2 – 36/24s & 2 – 36/30s) to assist in treating the effluent to the required standards. We also provided flow equalization and splitter boxes to distribute the flow through the Biocleres as well as an existing sand filter; all of the AquaPoint supplied equipment was installed late in 2017. The resulting effluent is used for ornamental irrigation. For more information on the sustainability efforts of Serenbe, please visit their website. (Click on below photos to enlarge)