BEND, OR -- A Bend company has won a $399,618 dollar grant from the EPA’s Small Business Innovation Research program.

LeapFrog Designs CEO and Co-Founder Adam DeHeer tells KBND News the company creates technology to treat so called ‘graywater’, “So, it uses plants and natural systems found in wetlands to treat water for onsite water reuse. Right now, we treat water from non-kitchen sinks, showers, and laundry, and we treat that with this ecological treatment platform. And then it's ready for reuse in toilet flushing and irrigation.”

Reusing onsite graywater could reduce overall water consumption by 40%. DeHeer notes that’s important for our high desert climate, and beyond, “We can start to address this problem locally. At the same time that we scale to all the water scarce areas where groundwater is at risk for contamination. There's a lot of places in rural regions where new wells are becoming a real issue and onset water reuse can directly address that problem, which I'm excited about for Central Oregon.”

DeHeer says the grant will expand the operation beyond graywater “We're expanding that to include kitchen waste water, which is considered ‘black water’. And then we're even including the treatment of septic effluent.”