Linking Water Treatment with Wetland Restoration - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 361

18 LinkingWaterTreatment

withWetlandRestoration
Engineering Challenges
and Associated Benefits* *

CONTENTS
Introduction............................................................................................................ 375
Natural Treatment Processes.................................................................................. 378
Hydrology and Hydraulics ..................................................................................... 381
Planting Design...................................................................................................... 382
Public Use and Operations and Maintenance ........................................................ 383
Case Studies in Water Treatment and Restoration Benefits ................................... 385
Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 387
Acknowledgment ................................................................................................... 389
References.............................................................................................................. 389

INTRODUCTION
There have been many discussions about the human needs and some of the benefits
associated with restoring the marshes in southern Iraq (e.g., France 2007), but the
issue that James Bays from CH2MHILL is most concerned with regards the spe-
cific tools that can be employed to undertake and sustain those restoration efforts
through the long term. And one of these tools is a natural system-designed phi-
losophy that involves exploitation of natural processes for contaminant removal and
habitat improvement.
Treatment wetlands (Bays 2002; France 2003) as a technology and restoration tool
have been in application for over fifty years. Of the many technologies available (see
chapters 19 and 20; Steinfeld and Del Porto 2007), one relies on the use of surface-flow
wetlands designed to receive pretreated effluents for water “polishing” and habitat resto-
ration. The natural processes that occur in wetlands are both robust and malleable (Bays
2004), with dozens of species that can be used in any typical treatment technology and
many hundreds more potentially available from the rich natural heritage and diversity.

* Adapted by Robert L. France from Bays, J.S. 2004. Wastewater and salinity treatment in wet-
lands. Paper presented at the Mesopotamian Marshes and Modern Development: Practical
Approaches for Sustaining Restored Ecological and Cultural Landscapes conference,
Cambridge, MA, October.

375