1997 Birth of Wastewater Gardens

As part of his biospherian responsibilities, Mark Nelson managed the Biosphere 2 wastewater treatment system. It had been designed with Billy Wolverton, then at NASA Stennis Center, and was a biodiverse constructed wetland. It not only “treated” all the wastewater from people, domestic animals and laboratories inside the facility, but created a beautiful wetland with aquatic and flowering plants. Cut for fodder, it helped produce food and the treated water was sent to the systems farm, returning the nutrients to the soils.

Inspired by that experience, and wanting to further develop and implement a system which exemplified ecotechnics and practical ecological engineering, Mark then did a Masters program at the University of Arizona School of Renewable Natural Resouces and a PhD under Prof. H.T. Odum at the Center for Wetlands/Environmental Engineering Sciences at the University of Florida to deepen his understanding of constructed wetlands.

One of the motivations behind the creation of Wastewater Gardens was to show people who use the system their connection with the water they use and the wastewater they produce – and to do it in a natural, beautiful way, letting natural processes do the work rather than machines and chemicals. Fall in love with the garden your wastes produce and you become more mindful of the products you use in your home or business, more conscious of the value of water. Around the world, untreated sewage is a huge disaster, polluting drinking water and so causing disease and death and damaging the environment. New, less expensive solutions are needed – alternatives to expensive, energy-intensive centralized sewage systems.