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Cleaning House GARBAGE IN, garbage out might be axiomatic for computer programmers but when it comes to cleaning up the environment, Michael Hough has a better idea - "grey" water in at one end of a natural sewage treatment system, clean water out the other.
Hough, an environmental studies professor, is partner in a private firm that designed a wetland treatment facility for the new Toronto Island School. Students attending the school will get first-hand knowledge of where their waste water goes from showers and sinks. In fact, they'll be able to see it every step of the way. York was instrumental in finding a donor who gave $250,000 to build the facility.
The natural sewage system is both "high and low tech," says Hough. "But the issue is we're basically using plants to cleanse waste water." Wetland sewage treatment has proven to be a cost-effective, alternative method for treating waste. Native plants - common cattail, bulrush, arrowhead plant, pondweed and waterweed, and microorganisms are used to breakdown and remove contaminants and nutrients. "It's the root systems that do the job," says Hough. "In the final finishing pond we'll have fish so the kids will be able to see the water is in pretty good shape. "The main trouble with too many of these nature schools is that Nature is somewhat remote. Kids go out and collect it. They learn to observe it, but it's rather external," Hough says. "Now, when children come and spend a week at the school, they are going to be studying themselves...they'll see directly where the water they use to wash hands or shower goes...it won't be so much a case of 'us' and 'Nature.' " Illustration: Julie Seregny Mahoney
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