The facility was installed in April of 2004 by Partners in Development with a grant from the Hawai‘i Nature Center Community Projects program the source of the funding was the US EPA. The grant ended in July of 2004 and PID has operated the facility minimally since then. The goal for the center is to conduct educational programs for Hawai‘i's students, provide an experimental constructed wetland laboratory for Hawai‘i's Universities and High Schools, and treat a thousand gallons a day of domestic wastewater from the park facilities to a Hawai‘i DOH R-2 reuse quality. The reuse of the water will become one of the main demonstrations for tours and field trips to the site.
The Living Machine™ technology was developed in the nineteen eighties by inventor scientist Dr. John Todd of Ocean Arks International. It is based on constructed wetland technology and advanced hydrological engineering principals. The facility in Makiki was originally placed at a municipal treatment plant in San Francisco and treated ten thousand gallons a day of secondary wastewater effluent to a title 22 California reuse standard. The facility is built on a trailer and was moved to ‘Ewa, Hawai‘i in 1998 where it was installed at a pig slaughter house to demonstrate the ability of the technology to remediate wastewater from agricultural processing. This demonstration led to the full scale Restorer™ treatment system at the Campbell industrial park, site of the new slaughter facility.
The tanks are constructed of ¾ inch steel plates and welded together. Wastewater is delivered to the system by a sump pump in the primary collection septic tank. The water is detained in the ecological fluidized beds for up to ten days depending on flow rates. Two air blowers circulate and aerate the water in the aerobic tanks through a patented process termed Ecological Fluidized Bed™ technology. Biology in the tanks including bacteria, microorganisms, anthropoids, snails, fish, algae and higher plants use the organic pollution in the wastewater as food for their natural life process. The water reaches a high quality standard with low levels of dissolved nutrients and pathenogenic bacteria remaining at the end of the process.
An attached wet lab contains a dissolved oxygen meter, pH meter, conductivity meter, digital balance, digital titrator, COD reactor, a spectrophotometer, a digital compound microscope, lap top computer, sink and counter top, desk and chair, storage and filing space, monitored alarm with photo beam around tanks, viewing deck, interpretational signs, subject related library, and two refrigerators.
Educational curriculum introduces students to the water cycle, nutrient cycle and the role of wetland ecologies in the watershed. Various lessons have been developed for different ages and in order to work in all of the State of Hawai‘i science content standards.
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D. Chad Middleton Durkin
Ecological Designer/ Operator
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D. Chad Middleton Durkin attended Punahou School in Hawai‘i and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Evergreen State College in the year 2000. He has extensive training with Ocean Arks International in the design and operation of constructed wetland technology. His experience includes biological design, project management, construction supervision, operations, education, curriculum design, public outreach, and water quality sampling. Previous to his work with Natural Systems Inc. he was refuge manager of Kure atoll, summer 1997, worked as a stream ecologist with the US Geological Survey NWQA program on O‘ahu, summer 1999, 2000, interned with the Army Environmental native plant conservation team in the mountains of the Waianae and Ko‘olau ranges, and sampled water quality with Aecos inc.
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Saturday, October 6, 2007 
Honolulu Advertiser
No Funding For Floating Waikiki Canal Plants
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