Page 31 - Council Journal Winter 2019

The benefits of wastewater treatment in wetlands range from protecting and enhancing the environment, increasing biodiversity, facilitating carbon capture and storage, extended service life when compared with conventional treatment systems and provide a robust, sustainable and aesthetically pleasing wastewater treatment plant.
Benefits of Reedlands & ICW’s
But the key benefit of wastewater treatment in wetlands from an operations perspective is the low cost of operation of these systems, they offer real savings in terms of energy use, demand on operations staff time and resources as well as sludge production, handling and disposal – all significant considerations when faced with managing the provision of effective wastewater treatment services within challenging budgetary constraints.
FEATURE Integrated Constructed Wetlands
As part of an EPA-funded project, NUI Galway researchers Collette Mulkeen, Dr Mark Healy and Prof Mike Gormally identified a need for a coherent, comprehensive and an up-to-date database of constructed wetland performance in Ireland.
Database of wetlands
This will hopefully help in the development of design criteria, guidelines and operation methodology for constructed wetlands in Ireland, and provide an evidence-based reference point for constructed wetland designers, engineers, scientists and researchers.
Using a mixture of published
and unpublished data from local authorities, Irish Water, and the EPA, with the help of a DCU-based web developer, Sean Healy, the NUI Galway researchers set about compiling a database that would capture these data.
wetland location within the county. If available, the data from this wetland are presented.
further constructed wetland locations or data they may have, via the webpage.
It is now available at http://wetlands.nuigalway.ie
To use the database, the user first
These databases may be downloaded (as an Excel worksheet) by clicking the ‘download’ button on the right hand side of the screen.
As the data are entirely user generated, engineers, technicians, or those sampling inlet and outlet water data in constructed wetlands in Ireland are encouraged to engage with the website and submit data to it.
selects the county and wastewater type of interest.
Three options for wastewater type are given: municipal, agricultural and industrial.
There are currently over 100 wetlands in the database. However, the database is far from complete.
After selection of county and wastewater type, another page is presented in which the user selects a
Those involved in the monitoring of wetlands are invited to submit any
Sources: Irish Water, Engineers Journal
Council Journal 31
All of the wetland datasheets have the same format and list a range of inlet and outlet water quality parameters by sampling date.
This database should be seen as a centralised repository of performance data from constructed wetlands in Ireland.
Wetlands database