Waste Management & Treatment

A closed-loop sanitation and resource-recovery system engineered for resilience, sustainability, and public health protection keeps the STX Campus operating when island infrastructure fails. The campus-wide system safely processes human wastewater, agricultural runoff, animal waste from the stables, and all campus-generated solids so operations remain safe during grid outages, hurricanes, disasters, and periods of water scarcity.

Waste treatment is not a background utility — it is essential infrastructure that allows the campus to operate independently and prevent environmental harm while supporting water reuse and disaster readiness.

Core Objectives

Protect public health & the environment: Containment, treatment tanks, and redundant sanitization layers prevent contamination of soil, groundwater, and sensitive coastal regions around St. Croix.
Support disaster-mode operations: When the island grid fails, pumps and controls ride the campus microgrid so sanitation, fire suppression, and habitability continue.
Recover usable water: Treated water is reclassified for irrigation, agricultural washdown, fire suppression reserves, and non-potable utility systems to reduce potable demand.
Sustain the stables & agricultural zones: Animal waste is composted, dehydrated, and bio-digested into safe soil inputs for orchards and non-edible landscaping.

Treatment Architecture Overview

The campus uses a tiered, closed-loop treatment system modeled after modern small-city sanitation plants but optimized for energy efficiency, water recovery, and minimal environmental discharge. The subsystem integrates:

Primary treatment: Settling tanks and grit chambers separate solids and fats before solids are transferred to the composting and dehydration facility behind the stables.
Secondary biological treatment: Aerobic processing tanks with controlled microbial ecosystems strip organic contaminants and stabilize flows.
Tertiary advanced treatment: Membrane filtration and UV-C light sanitization produce clean, safe reclaimed water without chemical residuals.
Final classification & reuse: Output water is monitored and distributed as irrigation-grade, agricultural service-grade, fire-suppression reserve, or non-potable utility supply. No water enters the drinking system unless future expansions add certified potable treatment.

Waste Streams & How They Flow

Human waste (Village 5, CRC, Villas, staff housing): Standard sewer infrastructure feeds the primary tank farm. Sensors track flow rates, tank levels, and microbial balance.
Animal waste (stables, future K9 units): Solids route to the composting barn for controlled-temperature curing; slurry is dehydrated, processed through secondary tanks, and UV-sanitized into irrigation-grade reuse.
Kitchen waste (CRC, events center, Villas): Grease traps prevent FOG contamination, while organic food waste is diverted into compost digesters.
Chemical handling (cleaning supplies, repair shops): Stored in sealed containment so they never enter treatment streams.

UV-C Sanitization Layer

A dedicated UV-C sanitization corridor running at 254 nm delivers complete pathogen destruction with zero chemical residuals. This approach consumes less energy than chlorine systems, creates no harmful byproducts, and keeps the system aligned with EPA compliance for island-based facilities.

Reclaimed Water Use Cases

Once fully processed, reclaimed water is distributed through the campus reuse network:

Irrigation: Orchards, greenhouses, and landscaping around Village 5 and the Villas.
Fire suppression: Reclaimed-water reservoirs feeding the fire loop serving the CRC, staff housing, and stables.
Agricultural washdown: Safe cleaning for pens, equipment, and maintenance bays.
Utility systems: Toilets, outdoor hose bibs, and maintenance sinks use non-potable reclaimed water.

This strategy cuts potable demand by roughly 40–60%, depending on rainfall and occupancy.

System Location & Integration

The Waste Management Zone sits behind the stables, adjacent to the orchards, connected to the agriculture cluster, positioned downwind from residential areas, and sited at a lower grade for gravity-fed efficiency. The location supports shared equipment storage, a joint Facilities/Groundskeeping staging area, and easy distribution of compost for non-edible landscaping.

Disaster Resilience Features

The system remains online during hurricanes and grid failures through microgrid-backed pumps, gravity-assisted flow, redundant tank capacity, manual override valves, physical access during debris events, flood-resistant berming, and interconnects to potable and non-potable water farms. Even during catastrophic storms the campus maintains sanitation, fire-suppression water, limited irrigation, and essential residential waste service.

Environmental Compliance & Oversight

Engineering exceeds USVI Department of Planning & Natural Resources (DPNR) requirements, EPA small-community wastewater guidelines, USDA rules for animal waste, and FEMA resilience standards for critical facilities. Sensors trigger alerts for tank levels, flow inconsistencies, microbial deviations, UV degradation, and pump failures, creating a continuous log for facilities maintenance and environmental reporting.

Campus Integration Summary

Waste Management & Treatment ties directly into every campus system — powering pumps and controls via the energy district, supplying reclaimed water to the water system, feeding compost and irrigation to agriculture and livestock, and protecting CRC and Village 5 operations during disaster response. It is a pillar of the environmental stewardship narrative presented to investors, agencies, and federal partners.