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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Florence, South Carolina » Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #94890
Title: CONSTRUCTED WETLAND SYSTEMS FOR SWINE WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Author
item RICE, J - NC STATE UNIV
item SZOGI, ARIEL - NC STATE UNIV
item BROOME, STEPHEN - NC STATE UNIV
item HUMENIK, FRANK - NC STATE UNIV
item Hunt, Patrick

Submitted to: Animal Production Systems and the Environment
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/27/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Wastewater problems associated with confined swine production have created a national urgency to find functional and affordable alternative treatment methods. An investigation was conducted on one of the promising methods, constructed wetlands, to treat swine lagoon liquid. Six treatment wetlands were used; they contained either wetland plants or agronomic crops. In these wetlands, mass reduction of N (ammonia plus nitrate) was 94% when N loading was at 3 kg/ha/day. At the current loading rate of approximately 25 kg/ha/day, the mean N removal efficiency was 87%. It was determined that the wetlands were nitrate-N limited for denitrification; hence, treatment experiments were also conducted with nitrified wastewater. When nitrified wastewater was added to batch applications to wetland microcosms, the nitrogen removal rate was four to five times higher than when non-nitrified wastewater was added. Wetland microcosms with plants were more effective than those with bare soil. This was likely due to the low soluble carbon of the nitrified wastewater. These results suggest that vegetated wetlands with nitrification pretreatment are viable treatment systems for removal of large quantities of nitrogen from swine wastewater.