Constructed Wetlands for Nutrient Removal
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Constructed Wetlands for Tile Drainage N Removal: 1. How they work; 2. How well they work; 3. How much they cost. David A. Kovacic (University of Illinois) Maria Lemke (The Nature Conservancy) Jeff Walk, Maria Lemke, Krista Kirkham & Ashley Maybanks Suzy Friedman, Terry Noto, Karen Chapman Jonathan Thayn Kent Bohnhoff Mackinaw Jackie Kraft River Drinking David Kovacic , Mike Wallace, Watersheds Miran Day Project Jonathan Evers Rick Twait Goal is to move water to Modern Day the Gulf as fast as Tile Systems possible Area in pink = 95 million acres Contributes 90% of the nitrate- N flux to the Gulf 0.86 Million metric tons 80% of this nitrate-N flux (or 72% of the nitrate-N entering the Gulf) is a result of tile-drainage from the area in pink. Local Problems with Nitrate •Methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome). EPA mcl=10 ppm for drinking water, Drinking water reservoirs. •Eutrophication of surface waters Global Problem with Nitrate Hypoxia – The “Dead Zone” Before the discovery industrial fixation of N2 to NH4 N2 NO3 NO3 After the discovery industrial fixation of N2 to NH4 N2 NO3 NO3 ? Vitousek et al. 1997 The Nitrogen Cascade Pop. Food N Fert. W.Q. There is an urgent need to implement management practices that reduce nitrate loading to surface waters while increasing production. Methods to remove Nitrate • High tech engineering solutions – such as ion exchange and reverse osmosis are always available- the solutions are expensive and incur large annual costs. • In the Mid 90s I suggested a Green solution to the nitrate problem. – I proposed that constructed wetlands might convert tile drainage water nitrate to N2 and reduce loading to streams through denitrification. - Less expensive than high tech From the N perspective one of Mother Nature’s most important free services - Denitrification (NO3 → NO → N2O → N2) (Standard) • conversion of NO3 - to gaseous forms (NO, N2O, N2) - one problem is that if the process is not complete NO (smog and ozone former), N2O (300x the gwp of CO2) and #1 depeleter of ozone. • if O2 is around they use it as an e- acceptor - • if anaerobic, they use NO3 as an e- acceptor • C and energy comes from organic matter provided by plants Anammox anaerobic ammonium oxidation + − (NH4 + NO2 → N2 + 2H2O) • Biological process, nitrate and ammonium ions are converted directly into diatomic nitrogen and water. • Bacteria that perform the anammox process belong to the bacterial phylum Plantomycetes What the wet prairie in Illinois looked like in the 1850s when the first settlers accessed to the region. Tile Drainage The major source of Nitrate to the Gulf 4-6 ft Soil surface deep Nitrate loading Stream Water penetrating tiles Drain tile spaces Water table Constructed Tile-Drainage Wetland Design Natural soil bacteria Soil surface denitrify nitrate under anaerobic conditions in the wetland sediment Berm Drain tile Plants required Stream to provide C for energy If the concept worked it would: Allow farmers to continue tile drainage and fertilizer use to maintain production, while reducing N loading to surface waters N2 Denitrification Nitrate Berm River Drain Tile Constructed Buffer Wetland To test the hypothesis 1. Created experimental (whole-ecosystem) wetlands 2. Tested the effectiveness of created wetland nitrate removal in several watersheds near Champaign, IL & Bloomington, IL . Fig. 3 – Design of berms, inlet, and outlet flow structures, and in-line flow control structure (stoplog). A 0.9 m deep by 1.2 m wide trench was excavated the length of the berm to form a key to retard seepage below the berm. Soil was applied to the berm in 15-cm layers and compacted with a sheep’s foot roller until the required height was reached. The berm in W1 was2.4 m high, 3 m wide at the top and 19 m at the base, with a freeboard between the emergency spillway and the top of the berm of 0.6 m. The W2 berm was constructed 2.7 m high, 3 m wide at the top and 19 m at the base, with a freeboard between the top of the berm and the spillway of 0.4 m. The emergency spillways were 2.5 m wide. During construction of the berm, inlet and outlet pipes were installed as well as the in-line flow control structure. Berms to capture and allow the quantification of surface drainage were built above each wetland in a similar fashion to the main wetland berms described above using a water and sediment control basin (WASCOB) design (University of Illinois Extension Service, 2000). WASCOB berms were 1.8 m high, 3 m wide at the top and 12 m wide at the base and were similar to the berm depicted above. A tracked bulldozer with a pushing blade (Caterpillar Model D-8) was used to excavate and spread soil. The topsoil as well as the surrounding forest area provided a seed bank to revegetate the site. Aerial View of Constructed Wetland in S. Champaign Co. 3 years after initial construction no seeding Wetlands Stop-log Inlet for Stop-log berm outlet stop-log Monitoring & Evaluation • Monitor nitrate and dissolved phosphorus at inlets and outlets of experimental wetlands • N Removal = Inlet – Outlet budget • Flow x concentration used to determine budgets 1,733 kg N Nitrate - N 4,700 kg Wetland Outlet Tile Inlet Denitrification 2,544 kg Cumulative data from three wetlands over three years three over wetlands three from data Cumulative Subsequent Wetland Studies support our initial results • Research with the city of Bloomington at Lake Bloomington • Research with The Nature Conservancy at the Franklin Demonstration Farm • The cumulative body of literature in the last 15 years indicates that wetlands can effectively reduce nitrate loading to rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. THIS LOOKS TOO GOOD Requires 5% of the effective drainage area to get 45% nitrate removal. Effective drainage. Figure 4-2. Close up of 50m buffer zone around tile drains indicating effective drainage (area in yellow). To obtain 45% NO3 removal in Lake Bloomington Watershed Must convert approximately 3.5% of the cropped area to wetlands, 1,484 acres out of 43,000 Once we were sure they worked to remove Nitrate we promoted wetlands as a solution to the nitrate problem Goal: To construct Tile-Drainage wetlands throughout the Lake Bloomington watershed. To reduce nitrate loading to Lake Bloomington, the source of water for 80,000 people in Bloomington and Normal, IL. A proof of concept study that proposes a more sustainable solution to pollution rather than a sole engineering solution BUT How do you actually implement such a solution? To site wetlands in in the 43,000 acre watershed would require the creation of a major database that allowed us to work remotely Requirements of the database: 1. Provide unique naming 5. Determine land ownership system for all sub-basins 6. Determine existing in the watersheds wetlands, depressions 2. Determine surface 7. Determine areas of any drainage characteristics at basin or any plot of ground several levels 8. Provide information for the 3. Provide maximum location, sizing, and resolution of elevations construction of wetlands 4. Provide a tool to locate tile 9. Provide a database that can drainage systems and be adapted for use by all determine effective project workers drainage 36 Create a Lake Bloomington Database Using the following: 1. USGS maps 7. Google earth 2. Soil maps 8. Bing maps 3. Hydrology maps 9. Lidar data 4. USGS DEM data 10.Parcel data 5. Color infrared 11.Range and photography township maps 6. NRCS aerial 12.ArcGIS photography Green Light Map 27 HUC 14 watersheds The system was designed for use by the entire team, but the outreach team has used it most recently Tile Order/Tile Drainage Order confusion Tiles Tiles Tiles TilesTiles Tiles Tiles Tiles 1st order stream Tiles Semantics = 1st order stream The majority of the drainage was invisible 41 Tile-Drainage Interception Wetlands • Placed at the junctions of 1st, 2nd, 3rd order tiles Tiles Til TilesTiles e s Tiles 1st order stream Tiles Semantics = 1st order stream Denitrification Denitrification N2 N2 River NO3 First Order Tile Second Order Tile NO3 Tile Drainage NO3 Interception Tile Drainage Third Order Wetland Interception Tile Wetland 42 Recently completed 1. Lake Bloomington Watershed ArcGIS Online Database, - Protocols for BMP placement 2. Nitrogen Load Reduction Index - Effectiveness of BMPs and Cost Estimate Miran J. Day Cal Poly David A. Kovacic Protocol used to evaluate placement of: TILE DRAINAGE TREATMENT WETLANDS. Several methods can be used to determine the location of wetlands. The first 2 involve: an evaluation based on the soil survey, and a way to determine basin suitability. a) Pond Reservoir Area Seepage • Not limited = zero or no value • Somewhat limited seepage = value greater than zero less than 1.0 • Very limited seepage = value is 1.0 b) Construction for “Embankments, dikes and levees” • Not Rated: No value for any of the factors (Depth to Saturated zone, thin layer, piping and seepage) • Somewhat limited: Values for any factor greater than zero but less than 1.0 • Very limited: Values for any factor is 1.0 (Bad for berm construction) c) Construction Material as a source of Sand • Not Rated • Fair • Poor d) Construction Material as a source of Gravel • Not Rated • Fair • Poor e) Soil Slope Average • 0 – 0.5% • 0.51% - 2.00% • 2.01% - 5.00% • 5.00% - Greater f) Hydric Soil • No Hydric Soil • Hydric Soil g) a) + b) + c) + d) + e) + f) + Sub-basins larger than 1acre Effective drainage of the LBW Figure 4-3. 50 m buffer zone around tile-drains indicating effective drainage. Wetland depressions Nutrient removal wetlands Similar protocols were developed for other BMPs • Annual cover crops • Perennial Cover Crops • Water table management • Riparian buffers • Grassed waterways • Bioreactors Nitrogen Load Reduction Index Excel Spreadsheet Calculator The calculator uses available GIS information as input to an index that determines the effectiveness of Best Management Practices to reduce nitrogen loading from the LBW and estimates a potential cost.