A new sewage treatment process: the vermifiltration. Demonstration-dissemination technically and environmentally integrated

Wastewater, and more generally organically polluted water, is treated by decomposing the organic matter it contains under aerobic or anaerobic conditions. This type of fermentation almost always takes place in a liquid medium (activated sludge, bacteria beds, lagooning, etc.). This requires extremely large surface areas or volumes (extensive lagooning ~ 10 m2/inhabitant equivalent) or the construction of costly plants with complex systems that accelerate decomposition and produce an undecomposed « mass » or sewage sludge which is finally digested in fields or incinerators.
These treatment systems are problematic, both in terms of the space they occupy and of the high investment, running (energy, sludge disposal, etc.) and maintenance costs associated with the complex technology frequently used. This particularly applies to small rural communities such as Combaillaux, which has, like the rest of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, an expanding population (1400 inhabitants in 2003; projected 2200 in 2020). The area is already densely built-up (13 % of area), but there is a strong attachment to the preservation of the local economy and the surrounding countryside. 58% of the land is worked (including vines and olive trees) and 29% of the land is protected (120 hectares is forests).