Wetland treatment of leachate from a closed landfill

A wetland system has operated seasonally at Saginaw Township, MI, USA, for ten years. The system consists of extraction, aeration, settling, intermittent vertical sand filtration, a surface flow wetland treatment with recycle, and discharge to the Tittibawassee River. The 0.85 ha cattail wetland treats the full leachate flow, with a total system detention time of 180 days. The high recycle rate creates a lesser wetland detention time of 60 days. Ammonia is the principal contaminant of concern, because it occurs at high concentrations, typically 300-500 mg/L. Ammonia mass reduction averaged 99.5% for the last nine years, with a 95% mass removal in the startup year. Metals were not present in all samples, with modest reductions in those always present (zinc 16%, arsenic 29%, barium 78%, chromium 67%). Volatile organic compounds were removed to below detection, excepting BTEX, which occurred in only 2% of the outflow samples. Base neutral organics, PCBs and pesticides were also removed to below detection, excepting phthalates with an outlet detection frequency of 29%. No pesticides or PCBs were detected in the system outflow. The ammonia removal rate coefficients for the wetland (12 m/yr) was at the 55th percentile of the distribution for other surface flow wetlands. The vertical filter was likely oxygen limited, and functioned with an apparent oxygen utilization of 30 gO/(m2 d).