Managing Wastewater the Natural Way

Wastewater in agriculture can take many forms. Examples include: winery effluent, on-farm food processing water, truck wash waters, greenhouse leachate, milk house rinse water and compost yard run-off.

Each of these materials have different chemical compositions. Most of us are familiar with the fact that wastewaters can contain nutrients that can impair surface water quality, but there are several other parameters in wastewaters that can impact water quality. These include: organic matter, pH, temperature and soluble solids.

OMAFRA in conjunction with The Ontario Greenhouse Alliance, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, Soil Resource Group and Aqua Treatment Technologies are working on demonstrating an on-farm constructed wetland treatment alternative for managing and re-using wastewater.

A constructed wetland is a wastewater treatment facility. It is designed, built and operated to mimic the processes that occur in natural wetlands. Constructed wetlands are complex, integrated systems in which water, plants, microorganisms, the sun, substrate and air interact to improve water quality. By attempting to optimize the physical, chemical and biological processes of the natural wetland ecosystem, constructed wetlands are both natural and engineered systems.

Constructed wetland systems are especially efficient at removing contaminants such as BOD, suspended solids, nitrogen, phosphorus, heavy metals and even complex organic molecules.

For more information and to see a demonstration of this technology in action, come to the Canadian Outdoor Farm Show this week. You can find us at the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association Tent.