Dave Pennington - The History of Aquaponics

Signs of sustainable agricultural systems have been documented as far back as 1150-1130 CE.  “Floating gardens” or Chinampas were used extensively by the Aztec Indians, primarily in Mexico around lakes and springs in Tenoctitlan, Xaltocan, Lake Texcoco and Lake Xochimilco areas.  The Aztec capital of the Tenochititlan in 1500, was the largest city in the world at the time and the agriculatural system was based on aquaponics These floating gardens were the first examples of the sustainable food production system that we call aquaponics, the combination of aquaculture (the raising of fish) with hydroponics ( the growing plants in water).  

                                                           Valley of Mexico during the Spanish Conquest

Chinampas were designed by rectangularly shaped fenced off areas in shallow water, layered with mud, lake sediment and decaying vegetation to create an organic and fertile mixture that feed nutrients from the fish waste in the nearby  water.  The plants would in turn filtered the water naturally, replacing clean water back to the adjoining lakes or springs and the cycled continued.  Each chinampas was often seperated by water or canals so that canoes could make their way between the garden sections.  These early aquaponic systems produced a very high crop yield, sometimes as many as three a year and were the farming technique of choice.  

Dave Pennington is an aquaponics design consultant in Dallas, Texas and he has more than an appreciation for these early agricultural pioneers.  Dave strongly believes that a scalable aquaponic system is the answer to sustainable food growth for a wide range of consumers, from large corporations and the backyard gardens.  He makes a simple, but compelling argument.  Consider the problems and solutions as Dave see’s it...

Problems

Water shortages

Foods are less nutritious

Inefficient use of energy and “waste”

Over fishing can cause protein shortages

Over 80% of the world’s fisheries are fully to over-exploited

Per captia consumption of fish continues to rise 3% as world nations become wealthier

Solutions 

Aquaponics

Sustainable food production

Uses less water

Less wastes

Eliminates chemical fertilizer

Reduce pressure on the ocean species 

Allows efficient local production of food

A simple and elegant solution indeed.  Dave is currently working on an aquaponic system that is adjacent to Parkland Hospital, he  would love to see some of his aquaponic sourced food used in the cafeteria or for the patients at the hospital.  At the very least he hopes to serve as a source for educating those interested in healthy and sustainable food options.  He is also working on a large aquaponic system at Paul Quinn college and hopes the university will be the first Dallas based school to adopt an educational program around aquaponics.

If you are interested in learning more about how to set up your own aquaponics system, Dave is a great source of information and he is also for hire as a consultant.  If you want to take it a step further, Dave recommends a 5 day immersion course at the University of the Virgin Island, St Croix, where you are taught the basics on aquaponics and Tilapia aquaculture. 

Dave Pennington: www.synergyFish.com

Chimampa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinampa

International Aquaponics and Tilapia Aquaculture Course: http://www.uvi.edu/sites/uvi/Pages/AES-Aquaculture-International_Aquaponics.aspx?s=RE

Urban Community garden coalition in SE Dallas: www.facebook.com/urban-community-garden-coalition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinampa

Brent Brown and Benje Feehan - bcWorkshop

The Dallas based non-profit, bcWorkshop is a design center dedicated to providing improved and collaborative public interest design and building services to the undeserved and sometimes forgotten communities in which resources are most scarce.    Acquiring 503c status since 2008, bc or building community workshop has grown to 19 staff members and 6 employees with an average age of 28 and the experience of several community based “humanitarian design” initiatives under its belt or in progress.  

Surprisingly, the altruistic approach to applying high-tech architecture and low-tech interventions is not without its critics.  Bruce Nussbaum, Professor of Innovation, at Parsons New School for Design, calls the work the “new imperialism.”  But other such as the founder of the nonprofit firm, Profit H Design, argue that the accusation is shortsighted and that “most critics who call humanitarian design the new imperialism haven’t done the work and realized how messy, political, and complex it can be.” If you have a chance to spend anytime with Brent Brown, the founder of bcWorkshop and Benje Feehan, an architect and project manager at the firm talk about their work on Congo Street in Dallas, you might also object to the accusation.

Congo Street is small stretch of 17 homes built before 1910, on a forgotten road in South Dallas,close to Fair Park.  Origionally called South Carroll Street, Congo Street was renamed in the 1930’s to warning to Fair goers as to what they would  encounter if they wandered too far from the Fair grounds and into the mostly black neighborhoods of and around Congo Street.  The name stuck, and the fear of the area was replaced by apathy.

Fast forward to the Spring of 08 and enter Brent Brown and his dedicated crew from bcWorkshop, and Congo Street was suddenly the topic of much discussion and interest.   What set this intervention apart from the beginning the was the commitment to understanding the stakeholders.  The process was constructed as an educational opportunity for the citizens and homeowners of Congo Street to have impute.

Brent believes that  community engagement is typically facilitated in two ways, it can be authentic, without any idea of what can happen, or manipulated in the way you wan the outcome to happen. The process of engagement with the Congo Street project was authentic, and the first step was to bring together a focus group of people outside the experts, and ask the citizens of the community for help.  The process took some time and commitment.  The community needed to trust the staff of bcWorkshop and believe that their intentions were genuine and not self serving.  Once the community understood that this was a collaborative effort and their voice and needs would be represented in the design, the  path to revitalization was underway with the design and construction of a “holding house.”  Residents would use this initial home to live in while their home was being rehabilitated.  Ultimately 6 homes on the 3000 square foot would be rebuilt and occupied by long time residents of Congo Street.  

                                                        Brent Brown and Congo Street

The Congo Street Project is only one of several such projects in progress at bcWorkshop.  The underlying theme to all of the initiatives lies in the evolution of the equity piece and Brent believes that this evolution is an extension of the application of civil rights.  In design this application goes by the name of “community design, humanitarian design, or public interest design.”  A new acronym that has been batted around in these circles to represent this movement is SEED or social economic and environmental design.

What ever you call it, the fundamental aspect of the process, and of sustainability is ethics, and the general theme of the staff at bcWorkshop is to represent "the people."  The goal of bcWorkshop is to take themselves out of the equation and help give a voice to those who many times are not fairly represented.  I believe this is a very worthy and needed movement and I am inspired by the passionate of people like Brent and Benje that have focused their talents and energy towards helping represent those who would not otherwise have this opportunity to participate in the process of change and equality usually afforded only to those with higher means.   

bcWorkshop: http://bcworkshop.org/

Making the Ideal More Real: http://www.architectmagazine.com/architects/making-the-ideal-more-real.aspx

Playing With Blocks

Alan Hoffmann is a successful home builder in Dallas that has been building to “green” standards before green was, well, cool.  He has been instrumental in  shaping the green building policies in the City of Dallas and was part of the steering committee of the Dallas Green Building Ordinance.  He built the first LEED Platinum Home in the city, and has continued to build to LEED standards as a practice since the USGBC rating system LEED for Homes was introduced in 2007.  He has won numerous awards and recognitions for his innovative home building practices, from various home builders associations.  

For Alan, an energy efficient, sustainably built home begins with simplicity, and a focus on the building envelope.  His philosophy dates back to families roots is Ibiza, Spain where a typical home is 400 years old, does not have central air conditioning or heat, and generates its energy from capturing the ground source temperate from the thermal mass construction of the floors and three foot thick walls.   

The modern version of this of this old and proven technology is mimicked by a product known as Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF’s), Alan’s building material of choice for the last 17 years.  He uses a polystyrene flat wall ICF, with galvanized steel webbing, manufactured by ARXX.  The advantages to using ARXX ICF’s are...

higher energy-efficiency 

reduces HVAC size and cost

foam insulation construction technique form an air-tight building

low temperature variation

less noise

better indoor air quality

slower cure rate means higher strength

fire, wind and termite resistant 

One of of Alan’s most recently awarded LEED home is located on Santa Clara Dr in East Dallas. Santa Clara features a centrally located mechanical room containing the HVAC, hot and cold water shut off valves, and a full house water filtration system.  The tankless water heater was located on an outside wall and centrally located so that the water travels a shorter distance.   Open cell foam was sprayed in the attic under the roofline and around the duct work, virtually eliminating duct leakage.  The home is 2700 square feet and the average electricity and heating bill is about $70 a month.  

Alan says that the energy savings from an ICF home more than makes up for the added cost to build an ICF home, which he estimates to be about 6-8% higher than conventional "sticks and bricks."

Future plans

Alan plans to implement his building techniques on a larger scale and has his sights focused on a neighborhood community comprised entirely of LEED homes.  He is in the process of raising the capital for his new development, so he did not want to give out too many details, but he did share is that the homes and development would feature a universal design, so that a person could comfortably age in the home with easy modifications made to the existing floorpan. 

The new development would promote a sense of community with such design elements as forward facing facades, walking paths, and common green space.   He also plans to capture the storm water run-off to be used to water the  common areas keeping future home owners dues low and controlling soil erosion and pollution. 

You will have to stay tuned for more information on this new and exciting LEED development, but in the meantime it is nice to know that there is at least one builder in Dallas that goes beyond the required standards and has a real sense of his works impact on our natural resources and environment.   Hopefully in the not to distant future will Alan be thought of as one of many.  

Alan Hoffmann Homes: http://www.concretehomestore.com/

Dallas Green building programs: http://www.greendallas.net/green_buildings.html

ARXX products:  http://www.arxx.com/Content/Products.

ARXX estimator calculator: http://www.arxx.com/Estimating/Estimator.aspx

Trash To Cash

The McCommas Bluff Landfill is one of the few city owned waste facilities in the nation, and is largest open air landfill in Texas.   Waste facilities in the state are highly regulated businesses, and in Texas they are under the guidelines of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).  

One of the unique features of the McCommas facility is that it generates onsite renewable energy by using an “enhanced leachate recirculation” (ELR) method, meaning that there is a controlled introduction of liquids circulated into the landfill that enhance the production of methane gas.  The gas is captured by a series of pumps and pipes and sold directly to a local utility company for energy needs.  Besides generating renewable energy, another benefit of the ELR process is that it increased landfill airspace resulting in greater carrying capacity and lifespan of the landfill.   

Timeline of Dallas Landfills

In the 1960’s Dallas city landfills were a network of smaller privately landfills that the city usually with short term contacts.

In 1976 the city realized that it needed a long-term approach to the areas growing landfill needs and chose a large area south of downtown Dallas located in a floodplain as the future site of what became knows as the McCommas Bluff Landfill.   

In 1983, levee construction was completed, roadways, weigh stations, drainage features, and the first waste cell (of 23) was excavated in preparation for accepting waste at the new city owned facility.  

The primary purpose of the McCommas Landfill is to serve the waste needs of Dallas residents.  The landfill currently accepts about 600,000 tons of waste annually and projects service capacity of about 120 years.   

The secondary purpose of the Dallas landfill is to manage commercial waste needs and balance the capacity with the residential needs.  Commercial haulers drop off approximately 1.1 million tons of waste each year at the McCommas landfill for a fee.  

Reuse, Recycle and Recovery

Initiatives to reuse and recycle waster and natural resources, and recover methane gas is an important part of the business practice and  philosophy at McCommas Bluff, and a few of the reasons why this landfill serves as a model for other municipalities and privately owned landfills.  Some of the annual statistics include...  

25,000 tons of concrete diverted, crushed and reused 

15,000 tons of brush diverted, crushed and reused 

500 tons of old tires diverted to vendors 

100 tons of glass, plastic and metal diverted to the processor

5 million cubic feet of landfill gas is captured and sold to the local utility year generating 1.2 M/yr in royalties on revenues. 

While a visit to the McCommas Bluff Landfill may not seem particularly exciting, one myth is debunked, the landfill is not a “dump,” it is a highly sophisticated engineered facility with long-range planning and careful consideration for site selection and zoning.  The facility must adhere to strict local, state and federal rules and regulations regarding protocol requirements for the treatment of waste including environmental monitoring, minimizing storm water pollution and the control of greenhouse gas emissions.  There must be an awareness and active consideration for resource management, the surrounding ecosystems and soil conservation.      

City of Dallas - http://www.dallascityhall.com/sanitation/mccommas_bluff.html

Landfill Gas - http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/energy/renewable/landfill.php

Talking Trash with Mary Suhm, Because You Have Not Heard the Last of Flow Control:http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/07/flow_control_1.php

Why Dallas Wants All Your Garbage: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/05/the_green_path_from_trash_to_t.php

River Legacy Science Center - Mindful Design in Practice

River Legacy Science Center was designed and constructed with sustainable principals in mind from its conception.  The goal of the center was to provide a learning facility focused on nature and the built environment, and how designing within the confines of a natural setting, minimizing site disturbance, resource degradation, and minimizing consumption is possible. 

The Living Science Center is part of the 1300 acre River Legacy Park located along the Trinity River in Arlington, Texas.  The Center features exhibits, aquariums, environmental educational programs and nature trails.  There is a detailed exhibit in the lobby which outlines a number of considerations for sustainable building practices, some of which are featured on the grounds in the Living Science Center, others of which serve as an education tool for patrons interested in reducing their carbon footprint though mindful design of the built environment in nature.  The topics include:

Natural Resources - A building can function within the existing ecosystem without placing additional stress on is resources or processes

Cultural Resources - The style, design element and resources of a building can use regional and culturally appropriate materials  

Site Planning - Adaptation to the environment, recycling, reuse and energy conservation can be supported by a sensitive site design

Architecture - Choice of building materials can first be gathered from rapidly renewable resources, secondly from recycled natural products and thirdly from synthetic materials.  Off-gassing carbon based products should be avoided. 

Energy and Utility - Renewable energy and building orientation should be considered first, water and energy conservation should be incorporated, and water treatment methods that are suitable to the ecosystem explored

Waste Disposal - Reuse materials onsite when possible, compost, recycle, and reduce the generation of waste  

Some of the sustainable feature at and around the River Legacy Science Center include:

Mulch covered nature trails to minimize the foot traffic impact on native soil

Trees relocated and parking lots laid out to minimize impact

Modular pavers installed to allow more air and water to reach the soil 

Path surfaces made from granite dust to allow more air and water to reach the soil

Native landscaping uses less water and fertilizer

Pond created from an existing depression and fosters natural habitat

Root watering crystals used throughout to retain water for plants

The Living Science Center also offers a number of educational classes for children, adults and families, including:

After-School Clubs

Nature School Classes

Texas Turtle Watch

Invasive Plants in Your Landscape

Water Festival (Water Awareness Through Education and Recreation) 

Nature Walk

Animal Exploration

River Legacy Science Center serves as a wonderful example and gentle reminder of  the importance of preserving and honoring nature and how the choices we make in the built environment impact ecosystems, natural resources and social well being.  The center represents the essence of sustainability with its peaceful backdrop of bottomland forest, the symphony of birds, the fluttering of busy butterflies and the laziness of the summer day with complete with sunbathing turtles.  You get the feeling you are the intruder as you walk along the nature trials and one is reminded of our responsibility to work within nature, not to impose, but to foster and compliment what nature already does, and naturally.    

River Legacy Park ; http://www.riverlegacy.org/
Google Map of the Park: http://bit.ly/nLBK51

Stan Dimmick - Structurally Insulated Panels

Stan Dimmick, the President of Korwall Industies, Inc., has been touting the virtues of structurally insulated panels, or SIPs, since 1958.  He has weathered the storm of criticism against the use of SIPs as nothing more than a cheap, experimental building material to be used for mobile homes, to the painfully slow acceptance of the use of SIPs as a legitimate building system, offering clear advantages to traditional “sticks and bricks” construction.  

The origins of the first SIP dates back to the 1930’s when engineers from Forest Products Laboratory (FLP) in Madison, Wisconsin theorized that by sandwiching insulation between two boards or skins and adding additional framing, you could pre-make panels for construction to be used as load bearing walls.  The first prototype was created and  for the next 30 years SIPs were manufactured and sold in the marketplace.  


Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the first known architects to use SIPs on his Usonian houses, and in the early 1950’s one of Wright’s students, the son of the founder of Dow Chemicals, decided to use Styrofoam between the skins resulting in the first foam core panel.

                                                         Usonian House

Stan Dimmick and his partner jumped into the foam panel market in the late 50’s by manufacturing lightweight sandwich panels with a honeycomb core and plywood skin for the mobile home industry.  Over the next 20 years the building industry changed, and by 1973 the Korwall product had evolved into a panel made of “two layers of wafer board laminated under pressure to a core of expanded polystyrene (foam).”  The trademarked Korwall, Korfloor and Kor-Roof products are in use today for residential and commercial applications. 

Korwall invested a great deal of time and money in the testing of its SIPs including the hiring of an engineer to administer a number of structural integrity, load bearing and durability tests, and to submit all findings and data to a several  professional groups including the Council of American Building Officials (CABO) in an effort to help satisfy any reservations about using SIPs for construction.   With the help of believers like Stan who have stayed the course of their convictions, the building industry began to embrace the use of SIPs as an alternative construction material.   

Some of the Benefits of SIPs:

Two to five times stronger than conventional materials

Continued savings on heating and cooling cost

Lifetime warranty (offered by Korwall)

Easy to construct, short learning curve

40% shorter construction time, less labor cost

50% less framing results in lower cost on materials

Less construction waste

Minimal thermal loss for added indoor comfort and moisture control

Stan says that it has taken him 44 years to get the “attention of home buyers and architects” about the benefits and legitimacy of SIPs.  Some might say the industry has finally caught up to Stan.  With a growing awareness in some of the key principals outlined in the LEED rating system, such as, energy efficiency, reduced waste and building materials, durability and maintenance, today’s homeowner is more savvy about the “true cost” of homeownership and is interested in making the right choice in building materials for the life of the home not just the construction of the home.      

Stan understands this growing awareness, and while his story is now told to a more receptive audience, he has been a pioneer in the SIPs industry for years and an inspiration to others interested in sustainability.  For those who believe in the people and businesses that are conscientious about their work and their impact on the world, we owe Stan a debt of gratitude for being a visionary who stayed the course. 




Korwall Industries, Inc: http://www.korwall.com/SIPs/PanelHomes/Default.htm

Structurally Insulated Panel Associations (SIPA) - http://www.sips.org/

Got Water?

Like many parts of the US, Tucson, Arizona has been faced with water shortages and concerns about adequate water supply for over 25 years.  The city has implemented a number of water conservation strategies aimed at addressing the challenge.  Water in short supply is a way of life in Tucson, so in October of 2008, it was no real surprise when the city council took a more aggressive stance and enacted the first  “Commercial Rainwater Harvesting Ordinance,” in the nation.  The ordinance requires commercial facilities to provide 50% of their landscape watering needs by a rainwater harvesting system.   

Tucson also limited the restriction on water use to residents and business by codifying a number of other water conserving strategies into law, including ordinances for emergency water conservation, residential gray water, water waste, xeriscaping and  enhanced plumbing codes.

Tucson is but one city that has had to make radical decisions, ordinances and laws concerning water conservation.   This growing awareness has becoming more common as the understanding that demand for water is outpacing supply.    Water conservation and awareness is definitely an important first step in the journey towards more efficient use of water, but we must take our knowledge a step further if we are going to make a measurable difference.    

Mike Reed is a landscaping and rainwater harvesting specialists with Whiz-Q Stone in Ft. Worth.  He represents a number of rainwater harvesting systems that range in size and cost and are appropriate for the homeowner, large commercial client, or municipality.  Designs include rain barrels, plastic tanks, matrix systems (adaptable water catchment building blocks), metal tanks and what he calls “show-off tanks. The concept is the same in all of these systems, they are meant to capture rainwater from areas such as rooftops or other hardscapes and hold that water for landscaping, agriculture or other non potable uses when needed.  

The design applications are vast and vary from home use, to large underground tanks with pervious brick pavers for commercial buildings.  There is even a matrix system that can be installed under a city street and will withstand the weight of a cement road and automobile traffic.  The applications are incredibly flexible. 

Water supply and conservation is something we must all be aware of and strive to make changes where possible.  Tucson is an example where people no longer have the luxury of choice on many decisions concerning water supply and use.  Perhaps it is time that we all do what we can to change our behavior.  We can start with simple changes like taking  shorter showers, planting drought tolerant plants, washing our clothes in cold water and only when the machine is full, turning off the water when brushing, installing low flow toilets and fixtures, and perhaps implement a rainwater harvesting system when possible.  There is a limited supply of fresh water in this world--a limited supply.  When you take time to really think about what that means, there is no choice, but to conserve.  Think about it.

Tucson Arizona Water Conservation Ordinances: http://cms3.tucsonaz.gov/water/ordinances
Materials calculator: http://www.whiz-q.com/calculator.htm
Whiz -Q Stone: http://www.whiz-q.com
75  Ways to Conserve Water: http://www.h2oconserve.org/?page_id=3