Construction of a Waste Water System at the RMBL

Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Crested Butte CO

Investigators

Abstract

The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) is an independent, nonprofit field station with no institutional affiliation. The RMBL provides facilities for those who wish to study high-altitude biology in a field setting. The facility is used by approximately 160 scientists, students, and research assistants for roughly 10,000 user-days each year. As part of finalizing a detailed facilities master plan in 2005 the Lab conducted an EPA-approved wetlands delineation and mapped the locations of its outhouses, septic tanks, and leach fields. A review of regulatory standards for waste water systems indicated that some of the Lab's systems were either in wetlands, or within wetland/riparian buffer zones. In part to avoid a potential cease and desist order, the RMBL has hired an engineering firm and has been working with county and state officials to design a plan for bringing the Lab's system into compliance and for managing future waste demands. With this award the RMBL will install a 2800 square foot leach field that will have the capacity to process approximately half of the Lab's waste water. Because of our remote location, the ability to appropriately manage human waste is a necessary part of facilitating research activities and minimizing the impact of the Lab's infrastructure on research. The RMBL has worked to diversify the scientific community. The RMBL has hosted 164 Research Experience for Undergraduate participants since 1991, including 56 students that belong to minority groups underrepresented in the sciences. Forty-seven percent of the lead investigators at the Lab in the last five years have been women. Additionally, research conducted at the Lab (and supported by these facilities) has been used for making national environmental policy.