Human reliance on reclamation and reuse of treated municipal wastewater will become more prevalent, both in arid and non-arid environments, with increasing demands on water resources. However, treated municipal wastewater effluents can contain a diverse suite of difficult-to-remove �emerging contaminants� including biologically-active compounds such as pharmaceuticals, hormones, and personal care products. Reuse of reclaimed municipal wastewater for potable and non-potable applications can be categorized as (1) direct or (2) indirect (de facto), where the treated effluent is discharged into an environmental buffer such as a stream or wetland. Engineered treatment wetlands have been used as a cost effective water quality management tool to provide additional removal of nutrients, biological oxygen demand, and suspended solids from municipal wastewater treatment facility effluents and agricultural wastewaters. However, the effectiveness of engineered wetlands for treating �emerging contaminants� can be improved by integration of hydraulic (flow velocity and hydraulic retention time), physicochemical (sorption, photolysis, and volatilization), and biological (microbial transformation and plant uptake) processes. Using experiences from several southwestern U.S. treatment wetlands, a full-scale innovative treatment wetland system was designed for the City of Waco, TX using reactor-in-series concepts that incorporate a sequence of open-water basins, emergent-vegetation zones, subsurface-flow zones, and a flowing-stream segment. In addition to providing a low-cost, low maintenance, and energy-efficient natural environmental buffer for contaminant attenuation, the treatment wetlands also will establish aquatic habitat for wildlife and provide educational opportunities for the public, thus enhancing human and ecological benefits from the conjunctive water reuse cycle. This robust design concept involving multiple treatment units can be applied to different locations, provided minimum requirements are met including available land, elevation differentials, and adequate water availability to maintain flow. The features that enhanced removal of �emerging contaminants� also will likely improve removal of �traditional� contaminants such as nutrients.

Innovative wastewater treatment wetland design:  Incorporating physicochemical principles to optimize removal of pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater contaminants

247th National Meeting (2014)

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