Puraflo Helps Keep California Beach Community Pristine
Quick Facts
Engineer: Noadiah Eckman, P.G. EckmanEnvironmental Designs, Inc.
Distributer: Jensen Onsite Wastewater
Systems Contractor: Nick Johnson, Innovative Systems, Inc.
Product: Puraflo®
Property Owner: Al Ingle
Location: Stinson Beach, CA
What's So Special About Stinson Beach?
Stinson Beach is located in northern California just 20 miles northwest of San Francisco. The white sand of Stinson Beach stretches 3.5 miles along the Pacific coast and it is known as one of the cleanest beaches in the country. The beach was once privately owned, but was ultimately gifted to the U.S. National Park Service in 1977.
Situation
Stinson Beach does not have a public sewer so each property owner is required to have an onsite system. The owner of a mixed use residential and commercial building in the heart of the community had to pump and haul the sewage from his building twice a month for many years. The cost of the pumping was nearly $10,000 per year. A new treatment solution was needed for the small restricted lot.
Lot size 50’ x 133’ on 15% slope
25’x25’ available for drainfield
Available soils were less than 3-feet in depth
High groundwater table
9-foot retaining wall only 20 feet from property line Property not accessible for excavation equipment and installation required use of all hand labor
Solution
The engineer contacted the Jensen Onsite Wastewater Systems team to inquire about utilizing the Puraflo peat fiber treatment system in conjunction with a mounded pad. To keep labor costs low and maintain the aesthetics of the resident’s front yard, the owner was interested in using Puraflo to significantly reduce the size of the dispersal area. Puraflo efficiently combines treatment and dispersal in one which significantly reduces the foot print and the number of moving parts in the system.
The solution met the needs of both the property owner and the regulatory agency. By using Puraflo, the regulatory agency was satisfied that the sensitive environment of Stinson Beach would be protected.
“This was truly one of the most difficult sites I had ever worked on,” said Noadiah Eckman of P.G. Eckman Environmental Designs, Inc. “I explored so many options of the systems we typically had used. None of these options could mitigate the con- straints of this lot at a reasonable cost and with a simplicity of maintenance that my client wanted. The peat fiber with pad dispersal is a system that could achieve the goals met with a sand filter or a mound without the bulk of materials and high costs.”
The system meets current regulatory require- ments and has low maintenance costs saving thousands of dollars per year. What seemed impossible at one point became a reality with the Puraflo and Anua’s expertise.
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