Greenhouse Scale Constructed Wetland System for Dairy Wastewater Treatment

Animal waste disposal is of increasing concern due to larger and more concentratedlivestock operations with less land available for manure application. This greenhouse studyinvestigates the feasibility of treating dairy lagoon effluent using a wetland treatment system withadvanced phosphorus removal. A synthetic wastewater, modeling pollutant levels in dairywastewater, was applied to a greenhouse-scale wetland treatment system consisting of two sets ofwetland cells with different retention times. Concentrations of nutrients were recorded at differentstages of the wetland system and evaluated to aid in the development of design parameters for apilot scale wetland treatment system. It was determined that greater nutrient reduction correspondsto a longer retention time in the wetland cells.