Filtering water the natural way

A responsible approach to resources starts with the wood we use at Danzer. But it does not stop there. It also means looking closely at how we use water, energy and other resources throughout our production processes. At our veneer mill in Edinburgh, Indiana, we are now building a new type of water treatment: The Ecological Treatment System (ETS) uses locally sourced rock, substrate and native vegetation to filter the dark-colored process water. This water is generated when hardwood logs are cooked before being sliced into veneer. Once treated at the Danzer facility, it flows into the municipal wastewater collection and treatment system.

“It has been an aspirational goal of our engineering department since 1999 to use ‘treatment wetland’-type passive technology to reduce our environmental impact on water resources,” says Cathy Lynn Danzer,  Sustainability & Compliance Counsel at Danzer. “What convinced us about the ETS is its simplicity: It uses natural materials such as wetland plants, soil and sand to treat the water, mimicking natural filtration. As a passive treatment system, it requires less energy than conventional systems.”

Letting natural processes do the work

The principle behind the system is simple. Layers of local aggregate, substrate and native vegetation filter the process water naturally. Most of this happens below ground. Above ground, only plants and stone will be visible, allowing the system to blend into the surrounding landscape. That means it will have little visual impact, use less energy than conventional treatment systems and be designed to prevent odors from affecting the surrounding community.

After evaluating other pretreatment technologies, including conventional filtration and chemical treatment systems, Danzer chose a different approach. We partnered with specialty construction professionals at Williams Creek Management and environmental engineers at V3 to design-build the system. Full operation is planned for early 2027.

The next question: Can we reuse the water?

Treating the water is one part of the project. The next is to see whether we can use it again. In a second phase, we will explore whether the treated water can be recirculated and used for another round of cooking hardwood logs at the Edinburgh mill. If that proves viable, it could provide a model for more circular water use across Danzer.

According to Neil Myers, CEO of Williams Creek Management, this is the first system of its kind that his company has designed and built specifically for the wood industry: “Danzer and the Ecological Treatment System are a great fit: a natural treatment system for a company working with one of our greatest renewable resources, wood. Sustainable treatment and reuse of one of our most precious finite resources, water, is a testament to Danzer’s ecological resource management commitment.”

Wood is the resource we know best. Using the other resources around it with the same care is part of our job.