PORTLAND – A new $241 million office building at Portland International Airport will be a showcase for recycling sewage to help sustain the environment.
Starting next spring, travelers will be able to step into the lobby of the 10-story building surrounded by a lush, vibrant ecosystem thriving off human waste.
For the word “sustainability” to have any meaning, buildings must be seen as living systems, said Martha Richmond, spokeswoman for the Port of Portland, which will have its administrative offices in the building.
“The building itself is a gateway to our region,” Richmond said. “If you’re going to have a uniquely Portland building, one of the things is to make it as green and sustainable as possible.”
Sewage, or black water, is considered one of the last frontiers in sustainability.
Only the Center for Health and Healing at Oregon Health & Science University treats black water, reusing it to flush toilets.
“Black water is still pretty tricky,” said Debbie Cleek, green building specialist with the City of Portland’s Bureau of Development Services.
“To do something like what OHSU did, and what the port’s doing, it’s pretty far out on the edge right now,” Cleek said.
But as living buildings become more common, Cleek said, so will black water recycling systems.
For now, state and city regulations haven’t caught up with the technology.
“Not many people are willing to take on the permitting hurdles,” Cleek said.
The port building will deliberately showcase its water treatment process, although the entire process won’t be visible. But four tanks in the lobby will double as planters. Visitors will see plants growing in mulch-covered beds. Below the mulch is gravel. In these and other gravel-filled tanks, the system replicates sped-up tide pools.
The tidal action introduces oxygen, which helps microorganisms convert impurities into innocuous compounds. After a final shot of ultraviolet sterilization, the water is ready to be used in the building’s toilets, where the process begins again.
The system, called a Living Machine, was created by Worrell Water Technologies.
Port of Portland staff are scheduled to move into the building next May. Construction began in October 2007.
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