Smart Advanced Septic Systems Challenge: Opening Soon

Advanced septic system technologies with enhanced nutrient removal capabilities have become more widespread and available. Now the challenge is to make these systems “smart” by using emerging sensor technologies and predictive data analytics to optimize treatment effectiveness and performance to reduce nutrient pollution and lessen impacts to the environment.

Why? Over one-fifth of US households use a septic system to treat their wastewater, and they were not designed to reduce nutrients. Nutrient pollution and nutrient-related impairments to surface and groundwater are one of America’s most widespread, costly, and challenging environmental problems.  Find out more about nutrient pollution.

EPA and collaborators will launch the Smart Advanced Septic Systems Challenge in the Fall. If you’d like to be notified when the Challenge launches, please click here to email the SASS Challenge team.

Related Nutrient Challenges

The Smart Advanced Septic Systems (SASS) Challenge is part of a suite of Challenges that aim to take a collaborative, data-driven approach to addressing nutrient pollution. The first initiative, the Nutrient Sensor Challenge http://www.act-us.info/nutrients-challenge/ sought the development of an affordable, reliable sensor for measuring nitrate and phosphate levels in water. Later, the Visualizing Nutrients Challenge https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933113 tasked participants with using open government data sources to create compelling, innovative, and comprehensible visualizations of the complexities of nutrient pollution. High school students then participated in the Visualize your Water Challenge https://www.usgs.gov/news/winners-announced-visualize-your-water-high-school-citizen-science-challenge that was a collaboration with USGS. The Advanced Septic System Nitrogen Sensor Challenge Phase II https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/innovation/advanced-septic-system-nitrogen-sensor-challenge-phase-ii-prototype-testing sought to identify and spur development of technologies to monitor nitrogen concentration in effluent from wastewater treatment systems. The Nutrient Sensor Action Challenge <https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/innovation/nutrient-sensor-action-challenge> sought demonstration of successful strategies for incorporating nutrient sensors into existing water monitoring efforts, and help states, and communities overcome the major barriers to taking action to prevent and reduce nutrient pollution.