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	Dr. John Buchanan (shown center) explains the science behind one of the state-of-the-art displays at the new Tennessee Onsite Wastewater Training Facility. A water quality expert in the University of Tennessee Department of Biosystems Engineering and Environmental Science, Buchanan also directs the recently formed UT Center for Decentralized Wastewater Management (CDWM). Download a print quality photo.

(SPRING HILL, Tenn.) — A crowd of concerned citizens from across the state participated in the recent opening of the Tennessee Onsite Wastewater Training Facility. On July 24 more than 75 engineers, wastewater managers, community planners, environmentalists and regulators toured the new site and examined the state-of-the-art displays of wastewater renovation technologies.

“I’m excited that our opening generated this much positive support and interest,” said Dr. John Buchanan, a water quality expert in the University of Tennessee Department of Biosystems Engineering and Environmental Science. Buchanan is director of the recently formed UT Center for Decentralized Wastewater Management (CDWM), a research and outreach program of the UT Institute of Agriculture. The training facility is just one of the activities of the CDWM.

Located at the University of Tennessee Middle Tennessee Experiment Station, the Tennessee Onsite Wastewater Training Facility will promote the successful use of decentralized wastewater technologies to minimize the risk wastewater poses to human and environmental health.

“The facility will serve as the flagship location for a statewide educational program on proper onsite treatment of wastewater,” Buchanan said. More than 25 percent of Tennessee citizens - more than 1.4 million persons - are not connected to a central sewer system. Combined, they generate more than 100 million gallons of wastewater each day. Buchanan said the CDWM was created to support society’s need to manage wastewater in a safe and environmentally sound manner.

The training facility includes aboveground displays of various onsite wastewater renovation technologies including wastewater treatment units, soil dispersal systems and examples of various pump controls. Buchanan hopes to begin training sessions for wastewater industry managers and government regulators as early as this fall.

The CDWM and the training facility were made possible by funding, equipment and services donated by the Tennessee Onsite Wastewater Association, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Division of Ground Water Protection and the Tennessee Valley Authority, and also by a grant from the Non Point Source Program administered by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the EPA.

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Contacts: Dr. John Buchanan, 865-974-7266; Patricia McDaniels, 865-974-7141