Nitrogen and Sediment Capture of a Floating Treatment Wetland on an Urban Stormwater Retention Pond—The Case of the Rain Project

Brendan McAndrew, Changwoo Ahn and Joanna Spooner
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Brendan McAndrew: Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA
Changwoo Ahn: Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA
Joanna Spooner: Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: Nitrogen is widely recognized as a chronic urban stormwater pollutant. In the United States, wet retention ponds have become widely used to treat urban runoff for quantity and quality. While wet ponds typically function well for the removal of sediments, nitrogen removal, performance can be inconsistent due to poor design and/or lack of maintenance. Retrofitting ponds to improve their nitrogen capture performance, however, is often expensive. By hydroponically growing macrophytes on wet ponds, floating treatment wetlands (FTW) may provide a cheap, sustainable means of improving nitrogen removal efficiency of aging stormwater ponds. Few studies have been performed on the effectiveness real-world stormwater systems, however. In this study, we investigated the nitrogen and sediment capture performance of a 50 m 2 floating treatment wetland deployed for 137 days on a stormwater wet pond located within an urban university campus near Washington, D.C. A total of 2684 g of biomass was produced, 3100 g of sediment captured, and 191 g of nitrogen removed from the pond. Although biomass production was relatively low (53 g/m 2 ), we found that nitrogen uptake by the plants (0.009 g/m 2 /day) was comparable to contemporary FTW studies.

Keywords: floating treatment wetland; sustainable stormwater management; stormwater detention pond; nitrogen removal; water quality; wetland plant biomass; The Rain Project (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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