Desalination and wastewater reuse can deliver needed water supplies while leaving natural beauty untouched

Many camping and glamping sites owe their very existence to pristine natural settings, whether beautiful beaches and blue water; lush, green woodlands; crisp, clear rivers and lakes; or sublime desert landscapes.

But providing necessities and even luxuries for visitors without upsetting the ecological balance can be challenging. Guests use a great deal of water and generate a great deal of wastewater, and sites often are far from water grids and wastewater treatment infrastructure.

Leaving Aesthetics Intact With Decentralized Treatment

Luxury hotels and resorts are perfect candidates for decentralized water and wastewater treatment, which places small treatment plants at the source of need.

Where seawater is available, modular decentralized desalination is now a more practical way than ever to deliver fresh water. And modular, decentralized wastewater treatment can turn campground wastewater into a stream of safe water for any number of nonpotable uses. Treating wastewater also helps protect the health and aesthetics of local water bodies. Instead of discharging polluted water into the river, for example, effluent is treated then discharged.

Fluence offers the latest water and wastewater treatment technology packaged into modular plants ideal for remote locations like camping and glamping sites, and RV parks. With treatment built into steel shipping containers, transportation is simple and site preparation is minimal. Once installed, the compact, low-odor, low-noise plants are easy to conceal, leaving natural aesthetics intact.

Decentralized Water Reuse Offers Low Capital Expenditure

In Oregon, the 283-acre Thousand Trails Bend-Sunriver RV Campground supports a great deal of RV camping, as well as rental cabins and yurts. The campground also includes swimming pools, a hot tub spa, a banquet hall, restrooms, showers, a laundry, and recreational areas for guests.

Activities at Bend-Sunriver RV Campground include hiking, horseback riding, and canoeing on the Little Deschutes River at the camp’s perimeter while nearby rivers and lakes offer salmon, whitefish, and rainbow trout fishing.

With popularity increasing, the camping facility needed to upgrade its wastewater treatment system while protecting the surrounding environment. After weighing the capital expenditure, and repair and replacement costs of several solutions, the facility chose a Fluence membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) system based on its low capital expenditure, simplicity of operation and maintenance, and comparable repair and replacement cost.

The decentralized nature of the project and availability of operational support from Fluence was extremely important to the selection of MABR, the core technology of the Aspiral™ family of modular wastewater treatment units.

Water treated with Aspiral™ meets or exceeds the most stringent water reuse regulations, including California’s Title 22 and China’s Class 1A standards, and is suitable for landscaping or agricultural irrigation, toilet flushing, washing, dust reduction, and beneficial environmental discharge. In increasingly arid regions like Oregon, it no longer makes sense to use water only once.

The consulting engineer on the project predicted a savings of $200,000 over the alternatives, concluding:

Package MABR systems are a very promising alternative for nitrogen reduction providing low capital expenditure, low operation & maintenance, and reasonable R&R expense.

Scalable Decentralized Desalination

Thousands of miles away in Costa Rica, the luxurious Reserva Conchal resort was able to continue operations, despite severe drought, with modular desalination solutions.

The entire resort relies on a compact desalination plant comprised of three Fluence NIROBOX™ units, hidden from guests in the jungle and operated and monitored by smartphone app. NIROBOX™ systems are energy-efficient and scalable — plant capacity can be increased or lowered by simply adding or removing individual units.

Contact Fluence to learn more about modular decentralized treatment. Whether you need to transform seawater into drinking water or turn wastewater into safe water for nonpotable applications, Fluence has three decades of experience to help you choose the best technology for your needs.