a good margin of improvement...

well, welcome back from this long two weeks of holidays. I begin this 2013 with a post that explain what you must not do about a treatment wetland system. Yesterday I had lunch in a restaurant where four years ago I have design and build with a good italian company a constructed wetlands. Before sitting down at the table I went to see the system.... and the photo below show what was there. 
First of all I write you that when we finished building it we have had an idea of the local manager and we think that it wasn't the right person to manage the system. We suggent to plant some species and he has used other, we have suggested the bacis management rules and he said " I know what I have to do... ". Well, this is the result when your client is not the best.

photo 1: the inlet

 As you ccan see in the photo 1) the importance of the Artec Filtering System ( buy it at www.artecambiente.it or contact me, I can give you the details of this good solution). This wastewater came from the bath and from the kitchens. The basic design guide say that the Imhof tank and the fat-trapper must to be cleaned two time a year....but as you can see a lot of solids and other particulate arrive here in the inlet. The good role of the  filter is shown but a lot of problems are before the filter.

photo 2: the outlet

 The output shows that the wastewater has been partially treated by the wetland system, there are not solids, there are not opacity and there are not fat or foam. Well... but is is partially treated and is not a good water to be sent in a freshwater channel.

photo 3: the surface

... and the photo three shows you which is the situation above the gravel. In the beginning of the project we suggest to plant phragmites australis and iris pseudacorus .. but he chose typha (We suggest iris and phragmites because the flowering of iris is the best in this public area). After 4 years this is the result, only ten group of plants are alive. this mean that only 20% of the wetlands surface is covered by plants and only 20%  of the whole system treat the wastewater. You can image that also the treatment performace are really low. 
(no smell rise from the whole surface area, only when I opened the intet tank it smell of wastewater)

I entitled this post "a good margin of improvement...".. yes ...few operations can be done to properly manage a treatment wetlands, please do it! 
- clean the Imhof tank
- clean the fat-trapper
- use right species
-.... listen your designer..

and after the visit to the system I had wash my hand...

have a good time and happy new 2013!