ECOPOD Offers Robust Treatment For Glamping Facility

A new AutoCamp glamping facility just outside Joshua Tree National Park needed a wastewater treatment system capable of supporting 55 Airstream campers, along with a main building housing a craft brewery, restaurant, and food commissary.

The environmentally sensitive site presented unique challenges. Large, mature trees required an approach that minimized disruption to the landscape, while the system needed to limit visual impact for guests. Regulatory requirements added another layer of complexity. San Bernardino County requires NSF245 treatment, while the Joshua Basin Water District requires effluent total nitrogen below 10 mg/L because of the area’s sensitivity.

An ECOPOD staged denitrifying system installed in Jensen Precast Tanks was selected for its simple operation, minimal maintenance requirements, and robust treatment capabilities. The system was designed for a 5,500 GPD flow, with wastewater collected from the individual Airstream locations and the main building.

The treatment system included a 15,000-gallon BOD and nitrifying ECOPOD reactor configured as three 5,000-gallon battery-style units, which were assembled onsite and installed inside two concrete tanks. A 5,000-gallon primary settling tank with an effluent filter and a 3,000-gallon flow equalization tank with duplex time-dosed pumps were also incorporated. After treatment, effluent was conveyed to a stone and pipe dispersal field.

The large precast concrete tanks were shipped to the site, assembled, installed, and sealed. The resulting system provided the owner and engineer with a reliable, easy-to-operate solution designed to achieve the required less-than-10-mg/L total nitrogen effluent while minimizing maintenance and site impact.