Reed Beds

Melvin Rutter runs YES Reedbeds, based in Leeds. We first met him when he installed reedbeds on the second series of It's Not Easy Being Green. We caught up with Melvin to find out more about these wonder water cleaners.

Tell us something about yourself and how you got started.

I'm 54 years old, and have worked with reedbeds since 1995. I spent seven years studying as a mature student, four of which were at Huddersfield University studying Human Ecology. I stumbled into reedbeds (not literally we hope) when two people asked me about them in the same week and I decided to investigate further. When I first tried constructing a reedbed I used farm slurry, as it was easily available. I thought if it worked on farm slurry then it must be a good idea. And it did. It turned the green stinky stuff into something more like lager. Pollutants had been reduced by 99%!

Luckily I managed to avoid many mistakes by opting for vertical flow reedbeds. After much research I ended up with my original design. I set about promoting this, and began building reedbeds for people in October 1996. It took me ten years to build the first 100 reedbed systems, by only two and a half years to build the next 100!

I have won a Network Rail Innovation Award and have a Certificate of Experience for my work, which covers the whole of Europe. I have taught Environmental Science at A level, and continue to give talks promoting reedbeds to all levels in universities and primary schools.

What is a reedbed and what does it do?

Reedbed filtration is a natural method of effectively filtering waste water through bacterial breakdown, reducing nutrient levels by 95-98%. My reedbeds have been tested on domestic, agricultural and industrial effluents. The water passes from your house, farm or industrial unit to a pre-treatment or settlement tank (septic tank) where the solids settle out, then on to the reed bed. As you can see from the picture the dirty water pours onto the top of the bed and trickles out at the bottom. We like to install on a slope or we have to pump the liquid from the tank to the reedbed. The water is now stream quality and can pass into a soakaway, a convenient stream, or be pumped onto your land for irrigating trees, etc. Don't water your veggies with it though as it is still full of bacteria.

Why would I want one?

If you are in a remote location a long way from a sewage pipe, you need a method of treating your waste water. There are often situations where whole villages are denied connection to a sewage works because this would put the water company in excess of its discharge consent limits and they would be fined. Where there is no connection to a sewage works, then your choices are limited to plastic tank treatment systems or natural reedbeds.

What is the smallest area of bed system that would effectively dispose of a household's waste? Say two adults and two children in a three bed semi. What might this cost and will it pay for itself over a period of time?

I've deliberately made my reedbeds low cost to make them more accessible. The smallest household reedbed system for 4 people would be 6m² (ie 4m x 1.5m). My reedbeds can filter one person's waste per 1m², but flow rates from modern systems make systems smaller than 6m² impractical. For £2,200 (which includes VAT) the customer gets the reedbed built, including all the materials, all the digging, everything. We then return to the site three or four times in the first year to make sure the beds are working and becoming established as expected, wherever you are located. This year we have been as far north as the Moray Firth and as far south as Redruth. (Note: Ooh! We live near there!)

Last week I was asked for a price for a 30 person system, which we sell for £4,400 (inc. VAT), and our nearest competitor reedbed company was offering to charge £25,000 for the same system. To compare, plastic tank treatment systems for a house are advertised as being roughly £4,400. You are also charged delivery of approximately £100, and £675 VAT. Then you have to have it put in the ground, which can cost from between £1,500 to £2,000. So plastic tank systems could cost aproaching £7,000 and I don't believe they work as well as my Yes Reedbeds.

Reedbeds can help with industrial waste waters too. One company is buying a large reedbed for £16,000. But they are able to save £30,000 each year by not tankering stuff away. There are many such situations. Saving costs can make a company more efficient, and in using these green technologies the company can stand out as being seriously green and friendly.

Is the type of reed used important? Can I just get some reeds from the local river and pop them in a pond?

If you dug up some reeds it would be hard work. The straggly root systems may not be sufficient to support the whole plant as you may have left some behind. The plants will die back and begin again in the next season, provided they have survived being dug up. But why would anyone rob their local environment of a rare and special habitat, just to save a few bob?

We grow phragmites from seed and from seedling plants. We grow them the first year and then split them to plant out the following year. This way we know they are all viable plants, raring to go as soon as they are planted. The reeds come up sometime in May, and they die back around November. Typha (the bull rush) have a lot of top growth which after a number of years seems as though it's too squashed together and this can put the plants under pressure and growth isn't so good. Phagmites australis (the tall grass we use) seems to come up year on year and does not have these problems because of the nature of the plant.

How long does a reedbed typically take to establish once constructed?

I can only say from my findings of my systems, other systems may vary! A Yes Reedbed will reduce the pollutant levels by 50% as soon as it's built and working. This rises to 98% within three months. All other types of systems, tank systems, sewage works, etc., follow this same pattern. The two to three foot plants will be established within six weeks. But these plants will grow year on year, reaching a height of more than 6 feet 8 inches. (Based on the height of a very tall Czech lad. We have a photo of him standing among nine-year-old reedbeds, and he was not as tall as the reeds.)

What tests/regulations need to be met for any discharges from the reedbed, and how much do these cost annually?

You would think regulation discharge limits were standard but they vary everywhere, for reasons I do not understand. If only there was one set of limits, we would all know where we stand. Typically, authorities look for no more than 20mg per litre BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand), 20mg per litre suspended solids and maybe 10 or even 5mg per litre ammonia. Biological Oxygen Demand is a measurement of how much dissolved oxygen the biology strips from the water column. The remainder is available for the plants and animals. My Yes Reedbed can normally achieve no more than 12mg/l for BOD and suspended solids, and less than 4mg/l ammonia; sometimes ammonia can be less than mg/l. I also test for levels of nitrates, phosphates and ammonia. These are nutrients/pollutants from sewage water, farm slurry or fertilisers. I use a simple colorimetric test which gives me a good indication of levels. Should I have a high reading then I would carry out a more definitive test, but so far this has not proven necessary.

Costs for household discharges can be around £120. But if the volumes exceed either 3,000 litres per day or 5,000 litres per day then different requirements are placed on these sites. Household use is officially measured as being 180 litres per person per day. I find this a typical engineering exaggeration used so that the system has that bit extra to cope in a crisis. But you try counting up the number of litres used each day! A family of four are said to use 720 litres (160 gallons) per day or almost 4 x 45-gallon tubs each and every day. If you add your own use up, I bet it's not this high. And if everyone in the world used this expected volume, then I wonder if there would be enough rainfall to meet demand.

What maintenance do reedbeds require, and how long will one last before it needs to be completely replaced? Can they run indefinitely?

Once the reedbed is established it should work happily for a great many years. I've only been building reedbeds for the past 14 years, and the first one I built is working as well as it did when I first put it in. I got a letter from an older gentleman who told me of his reedbed that was 120 years old. The theory is that once you have a system and it continues to be used for the purpose for which it was built, then it could run indefinitely in human terms. Replacement only happens when there is a change in circumstances, and I have only needed to rebuild a system on a couple of occasions.

At the same time there can be many reasons why the reedbeds need maintenance. I've had leaves smothering one system, snow squashing another, cows walking over another. In each case I have managed to return the reedbed to working order within an hour. Our offer is, should anything go wrong with our systems, then we will pop in on our way past and solve any maintenance problem. Reedbeds are so robust that often even though something has gone wrong, the outflows continue to flow clean and clear or are quickly returned to clean and clear.

There is no reason to cut back the top growth at any time. God never needed to cut them, and she knew what she was doing! (Note: thankyou!)

What household products should be used or avoided if you have a reedbed?

Reedbeds have been tried in a number of industrial situations with an array of chemicals and heavy metals, and they seem to work on most things. Reedbeds don't like herbicides or pesticides. Neither do I, so I'm OK with this. Normal use of household detergents has no detrimental effect on the reedbeds at all. Once the detergent is used, it is diluted. This then goes to a septic tank, where an even larger volume dilutes it all very nicely, making it ideal for the reedbeds to work on.

Aside from processing your blackwater, do reedbeds have any other ecological benefits? For example do they attract beneficial insects, animals, etc. to the area?

My reedbeds are too small to attract serious amounts of wildlife, although deer have slept in them. They circle round, making a nice comfy bed on which to sleep. They also attract rodents, although I can't be sure which varieties. When I approach they all squeak and run away! I have seen a field mouse nest on one of my reedbeds in Kent though.

Do you need permission from your council/local authorities to install one?

Yes. And sometimes it gets me down that officials are in the position to make choices when they have little or no idea about reedbeds. Worse still, many have heard different, sometimes negative, things about them. This means that after 14 years of work I still face the same hurdles. Still, if things were easy, then there would be no challenge.

If you install a reedbed, do you still have to pay for waste water on your water bill?

If you are connected to a sewer pipe you do not need to have a reedbed. The purpose of having a reedbed is to solve a serious problem of waste water treatment. My Yes Reedbeds are low cost, but they are not primarily to be used to avoid charges or taxes. All the same, people in remote locations often don't pay for waste water treatment because they don't have such a system available to them.

Can you have a reedbed running alongside your waste water system or are they mutually exclusive?

If you have a waste water system then you don't have a problem, therefore you don't need a reedbed. If someone in a town with a sewage connection wanted to opt for a reedbed, then I would not build one, and the authorities would not give permission.

Does it smell?

My vertical flow reedbeds are full of air and the waters flow through the aerobic conditions, so there is no standing water and therefore no smell. I could stand you in a bed that had had up to 20 tons of waste water per day, and if I didn't tell you what you were standing in you would have no idea. If there is a problem, such as a blockage or some other reason for standing water, then there would be a smell. But this would be a reason to get me to pop out and fix the system, which we do for free, or maybe for a cup of tea!

Other designs of reedbed can smell and tank systems certainly smell like fury.

If you grow vegetables in your back garden, can they be beside the reedbed?

So long as you are not watering the vegetables from the outflows from the reedbeds (and some people have suggested this, ugh!) then you could. Technically it should be OK. Although it might be better not to do this, as your friends might avoid eating with you!

If you have a composting loo, how does that affect things?

I have seen composting loos operated well and not so well. One system costing thousands of pounds was ruined as soon as it was opened, simply because people were not used to how it worked. I have also seen a system working perfectly well. In the case of the composting loo the reedbed would still be needed to filter the 'wets'. In a composting loo when the solids and the wets come together, the enzymes in the solids produce loads of ammonia, which is pretty bad for both animal and plant cells. So it's the wets that are the baddies rather than the solids.

Do amounts of sunshine/rain have an impact on the way your reedbed functions?

The reedbeds need sunshine, though it's fine if they only get morning or afternoon sunshine. But some people want to put reedbeds in the middle of woodland, where sunshine is excluded by branches and leaves. Sunshine equals photosynthesis which helps reedbeds to work.

My reedbeds are small and even the 100m² ones would not be affected by heavy rainfall. In fact, the heavy rainfall these past couple of years has seen ground water levels rise incredibly. There are loads of people on septic tanks only, and the high water table means their wastewater bubbles up and is black and stinky, usually somewhere not nice. Then they call me! So if you catch me doing a rain dance, then you might think it's all my fault that it's been raining for years!

But let me leave you with something to ponder. With reedbeds you have polluted waste water flowing vertically through a medium full of air and bacteria so that the outflows are clean and clear. Now imagine if you had polluted air from an industrial process, flowing up through a medium full of bacteria and kept wet - then you could expect clean air. I've done this and found reductions in ammonia, nitrous oxides, sulphur dioxide and... carbon dioxide!

In the Czech Republic we built a demo bio-filter system. The manager checked his computer readouts three times before asking me what I had done to reduce CO² emissions by 99%.

Again, what happens is that the air pollutants are turned into soil bits, into ‘ates' (nitrates, sulphates and carbonates).

Getting people to consider this is proving difficult. The question is how could a biological system turn CO² into carbonates, in such a short period of time. The answer is, of course, that our very own respiratory system does this very thing.

But I have a way to go to convince engineers. Still, this is a good challenge.

Thanks Melvin, I hope that's given our readers a bit more of an idea of Reed beds and what they do.

(c) Words and pictures Melvin Rutter - YES Reedbeds 2009

Full details of Melvin's work and loads more infomation can be found on his website - YES Reedbeds

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