Treatment Efficiency of Diffuse Agricultural Pollution in a Constructed Wetland Impacted by Groundwater Seepage

Diffuse agricultural pollution degrades water quality and is one of the main causes of eutrophication; therefore, it is important to reduce it. Constructed wetlands (CW) can be used as an effective measure for water quality improvement. There are two possible ways to establish surface flow CWs, in-s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water (Basel) 2018-11, Vol.10 (11), p.1601
Main Authors: Kill, Keit, Pärn, Jaan, Lust, Rauno, Mander, Ülo, Kasak, Kuno
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural pollution
Agricultural wastes
Aquatic plants
Artificial wetlands
Biodiversity
Carbon
Efficiency
Eutrophication
Flow rates
Flow velocity
Free surfaces
Groundwater
Inorganic carbon
Nitrogen
Nutrient removal
Organic carbon
Phosphorus
Phosphorus removal
Pollution control
Precipitation
Quality control
Retention
Runoff
Sedimentation & deposition
Seepage
Stream pollution
Stream water
Surface flow
Surface water
Total organic carbon
Vegetation
Water inflow
Water pollution
Water quality
Water quality measurements
Water temperature
Wetlands
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Summary:Diffuse agricultural pollution degrades water quality and is one of the main causes of eutrophication; therefore, it is important to reduce it. Constructed wetlands (CW) can be used as an effective measure for water quality improvement. There are two possible ways to establish surface flow CWs, in-stream and off-stream. We studied treatment efficiency of the in-stream free surface flow (FSW) Vända CW in southern Estonia from March 2017 until July 2018. The CW consists of two shallow-water parts planted with cattail (Typha latifolia). According to our analyses, the CW reduced total phosphorus (TP) and phosphate (PO4-P) by 20.5% and 16.3%, respectively, however, in summer, phosphorus removal was twice as high. We saw significant logarithmic correlation between flow rates and log TP and log PO4-P removal efficiency (rs = 0.53, rs = 0.63, p < 0.01 respectively). Yearly reduction of total organic carbon was 12.4% while total inorganic carbon increased by 9.7% due to groundwater seepage. Groundwater inflow also increased the concentration of total nitrogen in the outlet by 27.7% and nitrate concentration by 31.6%. In-stream FWS CWs are a promising measure to reduce diffuse pollution from agriculture; however, our experience and literature data prove that there are several factors that can influence CWs’ treatment efficiency.
ISSN:2073-4441
2073-4441
DOI:10.3390/w10111601