Constructed Wetlands for Management of Urban Stormwater Runoff

The first experiments on the use of wetland plants to treat wastewaters were carried out in the early 1950s by Dr. Käthe Seidel in Germany and the first full-scale systems were put into operation during the late 1960s. Since then, the subsurface systems have been commonly used in Europe while free water surface systems have been more popular in North America and Australia. During the 1970s and 1980s, the information on constructed wetland technology spread slowly. But since the 1990 s the technology has become international, facilitated by exchange among scientists and researchers around the world. Because of the need for more effective removal of ammonia and total nitrogen, during the 1990 s and 2000s vertical and horizontal flow constructed wetlands were combined to complement each other to achieve higher treatment efficiency. Today, constructed wetlands are recognized as a reliable wastewater treatment technology and they represent a suitable solution for the treatment of many types of wastewater.

Phytoremediation of highly water soluble and volatile organic xenobiotics is often inefficient because plants do not completely degrade these compounds through their rhizospheres. This results in phytotoxicity and/or volatilization of chemicals through the leaves, which can cause additional environmental problems. We demonstrate that endophytic bacteria equipped with the appropriate degradation pathway improve the in planta degradation of toluene. We introduced the pTOM toluene-degradation plasmid of Burkholderia cepacia G4 into B. cepacia L.S.2.4, a natural endophyte of yellow lupine. After surface-sterilized lupine seeds were successfully inoculated with the recombinant strain, the engineered endophytic bacteria strongly degraded toluene, resulting in a marked decrease in its phytotoxicity, and a 50-70% reduction of its evapotranspiration through the leaves. This strategy promises to improve the efficiency of phytoremediating volatile organic contaminants.

Constructed wetlands are a natural alternative to technical methods of wastewater treatment. However, our understanding of the complex processes caused by the plants, microorganisms, soil matrix and substances in the wastewater, and how they all interact with each other, is still rather incomplete. In this article, a closer look will be taken at the mechanisms of both plants in constructed wetlands and the microorganisms in the root zone which come into play when they remove contaminants from wastewater. The supply of oxygen plays a crucial role in the activity and type of metabolism performed by microorganisms in the root zone. Plants' involvement in the input of oxygen into the root zone, in the uptake of nutrients and in the direct degradation of pollutants as well as the role of microorganisms are all examined in more detail. The ways in which these processes act to treat wastewater are dealt with in the following order: Technological aspects; The effect of root growth on the soil matrix; Gas transport in helophytes and the release of oxygen into the rhizosphere; The uptake of inorganic compounds by plants; The uptake of organic pollutants by plants and their metabolism; The release of carbon compounds by plants; Factors affecting the elimination of pathogenic germs.