Thursday, August 29, 2013

Wastewater Basis of Design Document



Summary report on proposed natural wastewater
management system design for the Yestermorrow campus

This summary report was prepared by the YM 2013 Constructed Wetland class, instructed by Barton Kirk PE, Pete Munoz PE, and Harold Leverenz PE.  The student design team was Sean Powers, James Kinnie, Brittany Schroeder, and Alexander Van Steen.  Kate Stephenson provided guiding principles for the wastewater design to the team in order of priority:

  1. Plan for evolution, versatility and resilience
  2. The nature of the land, its healthy functioning, its living systems, and physics inform the structuring of human habitat
  3. Scaled modules of design to allow a kit-of-parts approach for ease of phasing, budgeting, flexibility, diversity, reuse at a residential scale
  4. Design to limit operational expenses
  5. Campus systems should be accessible and visible for educational demonstration purposes

Additional objectives for the design developed by the class are as follows:

  • Provide an opportunity for education
  • Minimize impacts on groundwater
  • Minimize electro-mechanical systems, e.g., gravity operation and passive design as much as possible
  • Low operation and maintenance requirements
  • Mechanical systems and other systems that require vehicle access for maintenance to be located in a centralized area

A number of assumptions were necessary for the design process.  The assumptions are generally related to the maximum number of people that would be present on campus during regular operations.  The water usage and constituent loading used in the design is based on textbook and other reference data sources.  One assumption is that portable toilets or other facilities will be made available during events that would result in a higher population on campus that the design values.  The May 2013 YM master plan was used as the primary reference for population and flow estimates.  A summary of the population and flow data is presented in Table 1.  Because of the relatively small change in flowrate between planning Phases 1 and 2 / 3, the design presented in this report is expected to accommodate the flows for all phases of the campus expansion.  Therefore, the proposed system would be constructed during the Phase 1 expansion and new buildings constructed at later construction phases would be connected to the system without substantial expansion.  The proposed system was selected from four general design scenarios considered for the campus.  A summary of alternative scenarios is listed in Appendix B.

Core Team Notes 8/26/13



Agenda:
-Check-in
-Waitsfield zoning permit update
- Wastewater team report & next steps
-Studio renovation plan 2014
-Getting Bill up to speed on core team decisions
-Membership of Core Team

Notes:

  • Kate checked with Susan Senning and expects to receive the final DRB decision this week. Next steps for permitting include wastewater, stormwater, then Act 250.
  • Wastewater team was here in July teaching and worked on a “basis of design” report with loads and recommendations. Next step is for Peter Lazorchak to review for permitting constraints, and simultaneously to overlay the constructed wetland sizing with stormwater design on the site plan to make sure it will all fit and work harmoniously.
  • Studio renovation is planned to go forward in 2014 using existing master planning funds. Maclay Architects has been hired to coordinate the design and engineering. This will include removing the posts, installing flooring, some electrical, A/V and other “finishing” of the space (baseboard etc). The staff is still trying to figure out when to best fit this project into the schedule of classes, as it will prevent classes in the studio for at least a month.
  • Bill had questions from the June board meeting mainly regarding how the core team had made decisions on changing some of the Regenesis plan features, including steep slopes, parking lot, driveway location, and keeping the Alpen Inn building. John C. will schedule a time to sit down with Bill and review the plans, or possibly Bill can come to VT for our next meeting.
  • We talked about how we tell our story in the larger community, and to potential donors. Introduce Bill and John to a few potential major donors. How much can we raise and how fast? At what point do we engage a design team and engineering? What do we need to be able to present to funders? This is the good time to start telling our story- we’re not asking for money yet but want to get folks interested and involved in the development process.
  • General timelines: 1 year to finish land permits, then another year to design the first building(s) and raise funds. Potential to start construction Fall 2016 if all goes well.

·         Next steps:
o   Kate to schedule informational meeting with District 5 Act 250 rep
o   Work with Peter L. to review wastewater plan and integrate with site plan.
o   Next meeting: Friday September 20th 1pm
Agenda: design guidelines, core membership