At a Glance

Leading edge water infrastructure enables a LEED Platinum low-income housing community in an arid region to treat and recycle greywater on site and reduce reliance on potable water.

Project Description

The nonprofit Coachella Valley Housing Coalition (CVHC) aims to improve the living conditions of low-income individuals. CVHC’s rental projects are developed to house low-income families, individuals looking for a steppingstone to home ownership, and individuals with special needs unable to find housing in the private market. The six-acre Villa Hermosa development, which consists of nine building housing 1-2, 3-, and 4-bedroom units, is designed specifically for families and farmworkers.

Working with the project’s sustainability consultant, Green Dinosaur, as part of an integrated design team including CVHC, stakeholders, architects, landscape architects, MEP engineers, and civil engineers, Biohabitats provided design, planning, engineering, and permitting services to create an onsite greywater treatment and water reuse system.

The system includes a secondary treatment process to treat Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS), as well as mechanical filtration. Greywater from the laundry facilities flows by gravity to a pump basin which has a coarse filter and pressurizes the flow to an Advantex® textile filter. Within the textile filter, the greywater is recirculated through a suspended fabric fixed film media filter. Secondary treated greywater then flows by gravity to a reuse tank where it is stored before being pumped to a mechanical room for final filtration before entering the irrigation system. The system, which collects greywater from the laundry facilities within Blocks 2 and 3 of the Phase III development, is designed to handle a greywater design flow of 3,360 gallons per day.

Details

Bioregion

Southwest Basin & Range

Expertise Areas

Climate Change, Water

Owner

Villa Hermosa

Location

Riverside, California, United States

Awards

LEED (v4) BD&C Platinum, 2023

Housing Innovation Award – Special Honors, U.S. Department of Energy, 2023

USGBC-LA Sustainable Innovation Award – Merit award for Energy and Operational Carbon, 2023

Project Team
  • Green Dinosaur