can cause algae high amounts of this nutrient wetland and streams blooms that damage ecosysEems. Machines, on the other hand, eliminate Living wastewater the need to pump water Lo a central that p1ant. Communities of bacteria treatment clean tanks in the plant roots the among live so the process does not require the wastewater, type of A special very much energy at all. nitrogen changes denittificans, called bacteria, in the water and rel-eases it as harmless gas (the main element in our nitrogen atmosphere) . Ohio, home septic In the watersheds of northeast are the problem-they worse even systems are an pollution. s ource greatest sources of non-point systems deal- with Homeowners who use septic it run into wastewater by simply letting their the ground in yards and fields - The wastes drain flow to Lake Erie. which eventually into rivers, has Erie now Lake "dead zones" As a result, and survive, life can other where no fish or high very have some parts near the shore levels. bacteria
students run lab tests every At Oberlin College, week to ensure that water cleaned by the Living Machine is in fact clean. This is important because the water is reused in the building's the landscape. Though and in irrigating toilets it is not safe to drink, the water is probably Because water water at Oberlin. used as drinking ever Ieaving the is cleaned and reused without the process is called a closed cycle. building, Machines, Iike wetland ecosystems, Li ving and cleaning nrnrli rlc t-he service of filtering
water. They also can produce goods that ,lrnpo* and fi-sh Live in For example, plants our lives. the Living Machine, which means we could harvest from their vegetables, and flowers fish, grown No food is in Oberlin's cleanest tanks. plants flower every Living Machine, but tropj-ca1 spring and summer and sometimes students take washed cuttings. carefull-y The Living Machine is a great example of the design that ecological type of closed-cycle could help reduce our energy and water use and ecosystems. Oberl-in's Living also protect but water from one building, Machine only treats there are other Living Machines in the U.S. that In Europe' serve groups of homes and businesses, large Living Machines systems cl-ean the cit,ies ! wastewater for entire To find out more about Living Machines, visit http : / / en.wikj-pedi a. org /wLki/Living_machines J,iving Machine webpage is Oberlin's lm 1.html http: / /www.oberlin.edu/ajlclsvstems
when\ou walVirr
fo *he' Uvin4Machinp i+ Kind of /roK> '2
liKeth is:
}Jrvvfv v
7,
'nu.LIzTrzl