A Novel Subsurface Upflow Wetland With The Aid Of Biosorption-Activated Media For Nutrient Removal

The major causes of nutrient problems are widely acknowledged to be nonpoint sources of pollution from both urban and rural areas, including conventional septic tanks or onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems (OSTDS). In this chapter, an extensive literature review of the myriad of alternative passive and non-passive technologies available leads to a new constructed wetland technology that is designed as a subsurface upflow wetland (SUW) with innovative subsurface hydraulic flow patterns, green reactive sorption media, and various plant species. The biosorption-activated media (BAM) are used before the standard drainfield design, and the SUW is used to replace the conventional drainfield. The SUW must have a seepage area for the effluent if reuse of the water is not planned. The SUW system installed at Central Florida underwent intensive sampling for system performance, modeling of the processes, pollutant transport and fate measures, and an assessment for integration of the planning, design, installation, maintenance, and management functions for future implementation and certification testing. Such an SUW system has proven advantageous relative to the conventional OSTDS. The average effluent nitrates are less than 10 mg L- 1 and fecal and E. coli data indicate that their removal is significant for all cases in the field campaign. © 2014 Elsevier B.V