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USING CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS TO IMPROVE DRAINAGE WATER QUALITY FROM HYDROPONICS FARMS
Author(s) -
Abbassi Bassim,
AlZboon Kamel,
Radaideh Jamal,
Wahbeh Alaa'
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
irrigation and drainage
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.421
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1531-0361
pISSN - 1531-0353
DOI - 10.1002/ird.580
Subject(s) - wetland , environmental science , biochemical oxygen demand , constructed wetland , water quality , effluent , environmental engineering , wastewater , drainage , chemical oxygen demand , total suspended solids , hydrology (agriculture) , subsurface flow , salinity , hydroponics , hydraulic retention time , agronomy , groundwater , ecology , geology , geotechnical engineering , biology
In this work, two types of pilot constructed wetlands were used to treat drainage water from the hydroponics farm in the Jordan Valley. Zeotuff was used as wetland filtering media. The wetlands were planted with giant reeds ( Arundo donax L.). The performance of the wetland systems under varying hydraulic retention times (HRT) was investigated in terms of BOD, COD, NO 3 , PO 4 , cations, anions, TSS, salinity and water conservation. It has been found that the vertical flow wetland was able to reduce the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD 5 ) concentration by more than 93% at an HRT of 7 days, where the BOD 5 removal was about 89% by the horizontal flow wetland at the same HRT. The percentage removal of total suspended solids (TSS) was found to be 98 and 94% by the vertical and horizontal flow wetlands, respectively. Nutrient content (nitrate and phosphate) was reduced in both wetlands at lower HRTs by more than 77%. Both wetlands obtained high efficiency in chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal as the quality of effluent water was found to comply closely with the Jordanian Irrigation Guidelines. The wetlands were able to greatly reduce the cations and anions contained in the influent water. The vertical flow wetland system exhibited more efficiency as a treatment facility than the horizontal flow wetland system. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.