Yesterday I was in Chincoteague, VA and visited the National Wildlife Refuge. While I did see some of the famous ponies in the distance, one of the highlights of the trip was the visitor’s center, Herbert H. Bateman Educaton and Administrative Center. Not only did the center have a camera on an eagle’s nest with newly hatched chicks, but the center is also a green building employing several innovative technologies.

The technology that caught my eye was the wetland wastewater treatment system as you walk into the building. The water entering the wetland is wastewater from the center that has first been through a filtering tank. The water flows through the wetland to a piped system that further treats the water with ozone before returning the water to the center for reuse in toilets.