EPIC Total Water Solutions
Water stored, moved and delivered below the surface: irrigation, drainage and stormwater in one sealed profile. Represented by Xpitrade across the Middle East and North Africa.
A complete water management solution, below the surface
One sealed profile (vegetation, sand, gravel, chambers, liner) that irrigates, drains and treats water at the same time. EPIC's own description is the best one: it behaves like a water battery.
Water is stored in the chambers and the gravel, lifted into the root zone by the sand, and returned to the chambers when it rains. Nothing sprays, nothing evaporates from the surface, and by design it is impossible to over-water an EPIC bed. Over ninety-nine per cent of an installation is gravel, sand and plants.
How it works
Scroll through the profile: how it is built, and what the water does once it is in.
The landscape
A lawn, a median, a field. From the surface nothing shows: no sprinklers, no emitters, no wet patches.
Sand
Under the vegetation, a bed of sand about half a metre deep. Sand holds water by capillarity and lifts it to the roots.
Gravel
Below the sand, a gravel course over the chambers. The two are graded to bridge each other, so fines stay at the surface where they can be serviced.
The liner and the chambers
A sealed EPDM liner is the floor. On it sit the chambers, connected in rows, the reservoir and the conveyance in one.
Water in
Water enters the chamber network by gravity, from a supply vault, a storm inlet or a recycled-water line.
The chamber fills
The chambers fill and spill into the gravel. A standing water level is set in the profile; the swing joint at the outlet sets how high.
Capillary rise
From that level the sand draws water upward into the root zone. No pump, no pressure, no spray. The plant takes what it needs.
Stormwater down
When it rains the same profile works in reverse: the surface absorbs, the sand filters, the chambers store.
The gravity trap
Each chamber's double wall makes grit climb and turn a corner to get in. Gravity will not take it there, so the system does not clog.
A living filter
At the sand and gravel interface a biological mat forms and treats what passes through, which is why the same profile can take greywater and septic effluent.
Twenty-five years in the ground
EPIC has been installing the system since 1999, in parks, sports fields, golf, streets, farms, roofs and wastewater, across the United States, the Gulf and beyond. Xpitrade represents it across the Middle East and North Africa.
US Patent No. 10,472,813 B1, together with two earlier US patents.
Where it goes
Any water
One profile, six classes of water. EPIC has been run on potable water, treated sewage effluent, greywater, septic effluent, saline reject and full-strength seawater, each under its own design rule.
In the Gulf that is the point. Where the only water is what the plant leaves over, EPIC turns it into landscape.
The chamber
Two sizes, one idea. A small chamber for narrow trenches and a large one for open ground, both injection-moulded in UV-stable polypropylene, inert to salts and fertilisers, with a fifty-year design life.
The double wall is the patented part: the outer openings sit low, the inner ones higher and offset, so grit has to climb and turn to get in. Water goes where gravity and capillarity take it; sediment stays out.
Working with us on EPIC
A project starts with the site, the water you have and the plants you want. We size the profile and the chamber layout, supply the chambers, liner and components, and support the installer through the hold points.
The brochure below is the introduction. The three-volume Technical Series (design manual, construction specification, operation and maintenance) follows on request.
Questions we are asked
Straight answers to what buyers ask us first. Anything else, ask us below.
What is EPIC?
A complete water management solution below the surface: sub-surface chambers that store, move and deliver water (irrigation, drainage and stormwater capture in one sealed profile) under parks, sports fields, streets, farms and roofs.
What water can it use?
Potable water, treated effluent, greywater, septic effluent, saline reject and seawater.
How proven is it?
470 installations since 1999, 1.36 billion litres of water saved a year, and three US patents, including US Patent No. 10,472,813 B1.
Who supplies EPIC in the Middle East and North Africa?
Xpitrade represents EPIC across the Middle East and North Africa: chambers, components, design support and installation supervision, supplied from Dubai.
Talk to us
Send a line list, a bill of quantities, a drawing set or a question. It goes to the right desk and you hear back from a person, not a ticket.