My company specializes in small system treatment and disposal technologies from a process perspective. We have assisted a number of companies to develop technologies including passive constructed wetland systems, and mechanical treatment systems. We are also involved in carrying out technology verification testing to verify performance claims. NSF International (
is a good source of information on household system performance, and they carry out the bulk of testing in North America.
In Canada, we do not irrigate treated effluent from household systems, largely due to Department of Health biases and lack of knowledge. There is an Australian company called BioCycle which claims to have 100's of such facilities using above ground irrigation. BioCycle is a simple anaerobic coarse solids separation chamber followed by an aeration chamber (with some fixed film media), and then by a clarifier. All biosolids are wasted directly to the anaerobic chamber (non-mixed). The clarified effluent is then used for shallow above or below ground irrigation. Certain areas of the US also promote shallow irrigation practices (in more arid areas of the US). There ae also some interesting technology developments in Canada. One company (
has developed a purely physical/chemical process for shipboard application which creates a highly treated effluent (less than 10 mg/L BOD and TSS). The is also another Canadian company that uses a low pressure membrane technology (Z-Weed) to generate a high quality effluent for water reuse (for toilet flushing, urinals, etc.)
. Many provinces have "dual plumbing" codes which allow for recycled wastewater to be used for toilets, etc. For further infomration you can contact me at AquaDoc@Canada.com