A pilot scale study to assess the effect of different rates of tannery effluent applied to constructed wetlands with Phragmites and Typha

The leather industry generates an important volume of wastewater with high content of salts, solids, nutrients and chromium that are usually discharged to treatment plants and causes problems to the treatment process. For proper pollution control adequate treatment is needed. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of different flow rates of tannery effluent in a pilot scale vertical subsurface flow wetland (WS) cultivated with Phragmites australis or Typha latifolia, as tertiary treatment technology, on removal of N, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and suspended solids (SS)