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ENGINEERING BULLETIN: CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS TREATMENT
Citation:
Romine, J. AND G. Farmer. ENGINEERING BULLETIN: CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS TREATMENT. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/540/S-96/501, 1996.
Impact/Purpose:
information
Description:
Constructed wetlands have been demonstrated effective in removing organic, metal, and nutrient elements including nitrogen and phosphorus from municipal wastewaters, mine drainage, industrial effluents, and agricultural runoff. The technology is waste stream-specific, requiring characterization of all organic and inorganic constituents. The need for cost-effective and efficient treatment of municipal wastewater in rural areas of the United States resulted in the development of several constructed wetlands for sewage treatment. The processes and techniques used in constructed wetland treatment of municipal wastewater have been well developed and are discussed in several recent texts (EPA 1988a, Reed et al. 1995, Hammer 1989, Cooper and Findlater 1990, and Moshiri 1993). However, literature discussing the use of constructed wetlands to treat metal-contaminated waste streams such as mine drainage is not as readily available. This engineering bulletin discusses the use of constructed wetlands treatment of metals-contaminated waste streams and provides performance data from recent case studies. In general, the development of constructed wetland technology in the United States has focused on the remediation of coal mine and metal mine drainages. The United States Bureau of Mines and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) have conducted considerable research in developing the constructed wetland technology to treat coal mine drainages. The Bureau of Mines research is summarized in Special Information Circular 9389 (1 994) and the TVA results are contained in various publications including Hammer (1 989) and Moshiri (1993). Metal mine applications have been developed by the Colorado School of Mines, the State of Minnesota, the State of Colorado (Division of Minerals and Geology), and others. Further, several investigators (for example, Staub and Cohen 1992, Eger 1992) have used bioreactors to treat mine drainage, based on extension of the constructed wetlands technology.