Título

Treatment Wetlands: An Alternative to Remove Arsenic from Water

Autor

MARIA TERESA ALARCON HERRERA

MARIA CECILIA VALLES ARAGON

MARIO ALBERTO OLMOS MARQUEZ

IGNACIO RAMIRO MARTIN DOMINGUEZ

Nivel de Acceso

Acceso Abierto

Resumen o descripción

Arsenic is a metalloid naturally present in many groundwater sources

destined for human consumption, which entails a public health risk. In Mexico,

reverse osmosis (RO) is the most popular arsenic removal process currently

available. Its greatest limitation is the amount of water that the process rejects

(50%). This feature and its high operation costs make it expensive for many

communities, especially those in rural areas; it is therefore necessary to find

alternatives for efficient arsenic removal. Constructed wetlands (CWs) have

been considered as a possibility for As removal in previous studies. The

objective of the present study was to determine the feasibility of using this

process for the treatment of the water with high arsenic content.

The experiment was performed in three CWS prototypes, operating in

parallel with subsurface flow. Two of the units (CW1 and CW2) were planted

with Eleocharis macrostachya. The third unit was used as a control (CW3),

without plants. The support medium was lime-sand. Two influx arsenic

concentrations (0.1 and 0.4mg/L) were used during this experiment.

Results indicate that CWs prototypes were able to retain an average of 90 to

95% of the arsenic present in feed water. The arsenic retention of the wetland

with no plants was only 23%, which shows the importance of the plants in

arsenic removal. The system as a whole (soil + plants) was able to keep As

concentrations in the treated water under 0.025mg/L (maximum value allowed

for drinking water in Mexico).

Fecha de publicación

2012

Tipo de publicación

Memoria de congreso

Versión de la publicación

Versión enviada

Formato

application/pdf

Idioma

Inglés

Repositorio Orígen

Fuente de Objetos Científicos Open Access

Descargas

120

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