Artificial Wetland Design for Improving River Water Quality

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We need design criteria for an artificial wetland treatment system for improving the water quality of a river in Turkey.

Is there anyone who have experience or data on this subject and can share it?

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16 Answers

  2. Contango Strategies out of Canada is on the cutting edge of wetland development.  They provide a full service from Oil&Gas, to Mining, to restoration.  Also they provide training and short courses for artificial wetlands.  http://www.contangostrategies.com

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  3. I and the charity Clean Rivers Trust have been involved in the development of reedbeds and wetlands to suit the treatment of different pollutions and the clean up of prior pollutions. The organisation was established 28 years ago to carry out this work and has been working with several UK Government Agencies such as the Coal Authority, Home Office and Ministry of Defence. We have also worked with chemical, pharma, mining and agricultural companies.

    The Trust has carried out similar work in the Middle East, East and North Africa. I gave a paper on the values of reedbeds and wetlands for pollution remediation at the Ulusal Su Ve Saglic Kongesi in Antalya in 2015. I have developed a good and growing understanding of the river systems and and hydrogeological conditions of many parts of the country as well as a great affection for the land and its people (my wife is Turkish).

     

    The use of reedbeds for the treatment of many pollutions can lead to sustainable and l;onglived answers to problems' they can also be developed to remove pollution from contaminated environments and at the same time benefit the ecology of areas that have been damaged in the past.

    Our web site www.cleanriverstrust.co.uk will demonstrate some of our work. My contact e-mail is hwoop@aol.com, my telephone +44 7885 422428 I attach a CV

  5. There are many good suggestions below , but I'll echo the sentiment that much more information is needed regarding your particular circumstance and add a word of caution against adopting another entity's design criteria without a solid understanding of the basis for those criteria and how they are similar or different from your project. What are the pollutants of interest and what are the flows? Do you need to reduce loads or minimize concentrations? Can you get by treating base flows, or must you capture and treat higher flows in order to meet the goals? I would recommend the book Treatment Wetlands, Second Edition by Kadlec and Wallace as a good starting point for general design information.  

    As others have noted, the most effective approach may be to treat point sources, and non-point sources (tributaries) to the extent possible prior to those flows discharging to the main river channel. Once these inputs reach the river, the combined effects of dilution and increased flow, make it that much more challenging to deal with. 

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  7. There are general criteria that apply to construction of every wetland. And there are criteria that are case specific, in which case design criteria depend on the quality (chemical and biological) of wastewater as well as volumes to be treated. I have participated in assembling data for design of wetlands for treatment of municipal wastewater in two Kenyan cities. May be I can help if I have details of the Turkey case.

  8. Please send me the  city name, number of people needing services, an estimate of wet waste and dry trash. Please list your short term and long term goals.  I will use google earth to view the area , elevation, rivers, mountains, and other features that may be very important to your new system.  Nature has all of the answers.  Just need to ask the right questions.

  9. Hi,  The Constructed wetland Association conference is coming up in a couple of weeks in the UK - you would probably meet lots of good people and get some good ideas there if you can make it.  If you can't, I can probably be some help, I'm UK based www.wetlandengineering.co.uk, contact me offline Geoff.sweaney@wetlandengineering.co.uk if you like.

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  10. There are many good consultants in this area, but as below best to start with identifying point and non-point sources for pollution into the river. Then a combination of bio-swails, floating wetlands that are anchored in the river, and constructed wetlands at the point sources would be part of an integrated solution. I would suggest Ron Lavigne at University of Massachusetts as one expert on constructed wetlands (newswet@aol.com); Rob Crook for floating wetlands in a river (crookkohler@bellsouth.net); and Jim Albertz for bio-swails layout and design along with hydrology (JAlbertz@qsemsolutions.com)

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  12.  I hope some of these links are useful  efotg. nrcs .usda.gov, efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/.../Public/ND/ Wetlands .pdf, nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=30004TBD.TXT ,  www.njstormwater.org/bmp_ manual /NJ_SWBMP_9.2 print.pdf, www.epa.gov/.../constructed- wetlands -handbook.pdf.

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  13. I agree with Dave gaybba, focusing on your point and non-point sources of pollution will help paint a better picture of the type of treatment design will be best for your wetland. CSO data if you have any (combined sewer overflows) or even watershed delineations would be a good start to analyze hydrology and rainwater runoff. You can also look into LID (low impact development) storm water practices to supplement the effectivemess of your wetland design. 

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    1. Thank you for all comments. The project spesifically focuses on the treatment of only a portion of river water itself by a off-side  wetland treatment system. The river water quality is like: ammonium: 2,5 mg/L, Nitrate: 3,7 mg/L, Tot-P: 1,7 mg/L

      1 Comment reply

      1. Hi Dr Lufti, I would like to stay in contact and discuss this going forward. This is exactly my field and focus, we manage to reduce ammonia, Phosphates (P & PO4) and Nitrate by between 70 - 90% in Treated Sewer Effluent (TSE) or PO4 14mg/L to 1.5mg/L, P 5mg/L to 0.6mg/L and Ammonia 1,0mg/L to 0.1mg/L.  These are obviously out of 1 report in Dubai with Emaar and European Golf Design. We do the same treatments in Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan, UK etc. By reducing this "Super Eutrophic" state, the DO systematically increase, allowing the river/water body to rehabilitate itself. Its more of a proactive than reactive approach with a total unique technology.

        Regards

        Dave

         

  14. did you check the Nimr project in Oman by Baur from Germany?

  15. Hi Dr Lufti,

    If I may ask, what it the condition of the river you intend to treat? Have you considered focusing on the point source pollution rather than the entire river? If the point sources are treated and reduce load on river, the river will systematically rehabilitate itself. We are involved in this market and its much more cost effective to focus on the point sources. Let us know the conditions eg Nitrate, Phosphate, Ammonia, algae, aquatic plant growth etc. I will gladly discuss in-depth dave@makroorganics.com

    Regards

    Dave

  16. This article will lead you to Wetlands Research and more about Don Hey's work:

    https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/OI/Documents/June08TrialbyWater.pdf

    http://wetlandsresearch.org

    I am very interested in this issue of river water quality restoration using wetlands, and may have some basic thoughts if you wish to discuss. Yet, I would need to know more about your specific river. Taber@wetlands.work    

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    1. Check US EPA documents for a good primer, albeit dated (1994)  Wetlands Handbook.  Are you trying to hire a consultant to provide a turn-key solution, or educate yourself on the topic? 2 primary questions are (1) the quality of the influents (as well as temporal distribution of flow) and (2) receiving water quality standards. Obviously considerations are how much land is available and what is the tolerance for receiving water quality exceedance of standards.  Good luck.