Wastewater Utilization: A Place for Managed Wetlands

Abstract

Constructed wetlands are being used for the removal of nutrients from livestock wastewater. However, natural vegetation typically used in constructed wetlands does not have marketable value. As an alternative, agronomic plants grown under flooded or saturated soil conditions that promote denitrification can be used. Studies on constructed wetlands for swine wastewater were conducted in wetland cells that contained either natural wetland plants or a combination of soybeans and rice for two years with the objective of maximum nitrogen reduction to minimize the amount of land required for terminal treatment. Three systems, of two 3.6 by 33.5 m wetland cells connected in series were used; two systems each contained a different combination of emergent wetland vegetation: rush/bulrush (system 1) and bur-reed/cattail (system 2). The third system contained soybean (Glycine max) in saturated-soil-culture (SSC) in the first cell, and flooded rice (Oryza sativa) in the second cell. Nitrogen (N) loading rates of 3 and 10 kg ha-1 day-1 were used in the first and second years, respectively. These loading rates were obtained by mixing swine lagoon liquid with fresh water before it was applied to the wetland. The nutrient removal efficiency was similar in the rush/bulrush, bur-reed/cattails and agronomic plant systems. Mean mass removal of N was 94% at the loading rate of 3 kg N ha-1 day-1 and decreased to 71% at the higher rate of 10 kg N ha-1 day . The two years means for above-ground dry matter production for rush/bulrushes and bur-reed/cattails was 12 and 33 Mg ha-1, respectively. Flooded rice yield was 4.5 Mg ha-1, and soybean grown in saturation culture yielded 2.8 Mg ha-1. Additionally, the performance of seven soybean cultivars using SSC in constructed wetlands with swine wastewater as the water source was evaluated for two years. The cultivar Young had the highest yield with 4.0 and 2.8 Mg ha-1 in each year. This indicated that production of acceptable soybean yields in constructed wetlands seems feasible with SSC using swine lagoon liquid. Two microcosms studies were established to further investigate the management of constructed wetlands. In the first microcosm experiment, the effects of swine lagoon liquid on the growth of wetland plants at half (about 175 mg/l ammonia) and full strength (about 350 mg/l ammonia) was investigated. It was concluded that wetland plants can grow well in at least half strength lagoon liquid. In the second microcosm experiment, sequencing nitrification-wetland treatments was studied. When nitrified lagoon liquid was added in batch applications (48 kg N ha-1 day-1) to wetland microcosms the nitrogen removal rate was four to five times higher than when non-nitrified lagoon liquid was added. Wetland microcosms with plants were more effective than those with bare soil. These results suggest that vegetated wetlands with nitrification pretreatment are viable treatment systems for removal of large quantities of nitrogen from swine lagoon liquid.