Patent ID: 8585892

Claim:
A wastewater treatment system for a watershed defining an aquifer or waterway, comprising: a network of independent wastewater treatment facilities, each of the independent wastewater treatment facilities having: wastewater treatment subsystems including: a wastewater collection subsystem for holding wastewater to be treated; a filter pump subsystem comprising a wastewater pump fluidically connected to the wastewater collection subsystem and operable to pump wastewater out from the wastewater collection subsystem; at least one filtration subsystem comprising at least one bioreactive filter fluidically connected to the wastewater pump and operable to filter wastewater received from the wastewater pump, the at least one bioreactive filter having: a sump defining a sump cavity for receiving wastewater therein; a fluidized-bed filter disposed in the sump cavity and supported upright by the sump, the fluidized-bed filter having an upwardly expanding, hollow, conical filter body and filter media inside the filter body; and an output fluidically connected to the fluidized-bed filter and operable to discharge filtered wastewater from the fluidized-bed filter; a monitoring subsystem comprising monitors operable to measure wastewater process parameters of the wastewater treatment subsystem selected from at least one of the group consisting of process flow, water level, water temperature, pH, nutrient concentration, total suspended solids, actual weather condition at the wastewater treatment facility, and effects of local weather condition on the wastewater treatment facility; control devices operable to receive at least one control command and, dependent upon the at least one control command received, to alter at least one parameter of at least one of the wastewater treatment subsystems; and a communication device operatively connected to the wastewater treatment subsystems and to the control devices and operable: to send information corresponding to the wastewater process parameters measured by the monitors; to receive control messages corresponding to the at least one control command; and to transmit the at least one control command to at least one of the control devices to, thereby, alter a wastewater process parameter; at least one monitor located to measure water that includes wastewater discharged from two or more of the independent wastewater treatment facilities and operable to monitor water quality parameters of the watershed; and a central monitoring location operable to manage the watershed by: receiving the information corresponding to the wastewater process parameters from each communication device; evaluating if changes are to be made by at least one of the independent wastewater treatment facilities; sending the control messages to at least one of the independent wastewater treatment facilities; and at least one of regulating and diverting discharge from the independent wastewater treatment facilities to maintain compliance with permissible, monitored watershed parameter tolerances.