Treatment Efficiencies of Constructed Wetlands for Eutrophic Landscape River Water*

The efficiencies of two types of constructed wetlands for the treatment of low-concentration polluted eutrophic landscape river water were studied in the western section of the Qingyuan River at the Minhang campus of Shanghai Jiaotong University. The first wetland was a single-stage system using gravel as a filtration medium, and the second was a three-stage system filled with combinations of gravel, zeolite, and fly ash. Results from parallel operations of the wetlands showed that the three-stage constructed wetland could remove organics, nitrogen, and phosphorus successfully. At the same time, it could also decrease ammoniacal odour in the effluent. Compared to the single-stage constructed wetland, it had better nutrient removal efficiencies with a higher removal of 19.37%–65.27% for total phosphorus (TP) and 21.56%– 62.94% for total nitrogen (TN), respectively, during the operation period of 14 weeks. In terms of removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), turbidity, and blue-green algae, these two wetland systems had equivalent performances. It was also found that in the western section of the test river, in which the two constructed wetlands were located, the water quality was much better than that in the eastern and middle sections without constructed wetland because COD, TN, and TP were all in a relatively lower level and the eutrophication could be prevented completely in the western section.