Sustainable Future: Soil Science and On-Site Wastewater Treatment.

Soil plays a critical role in on-site or decentralized waste water treatment and management.  In the United States approximately 22% of the population relies on soils through the use of onsite septic systems to treat and disperse their waste water into the environment.  Proper identification of soil and site morphological features systems can be designed to have minimal environmental consequences.  As our population continues to grow and we move further out from urban centers decentralized systems will become more common.  This will put more pressure on the soil to treat the wastewater effectively.  In turn this can only be done if the soils are properly identified as to their capability to treat the wastewater.  The results are job opportunities for soil scientist that have training in this field as well as those who have an understanding of the engineering, design, maintenance and construction of these systems.  Wastewater will become a growth area for soil scientists.