A wastewater treatment option: constructed wetland.

Pig slurry constitutes a very serious environmental issue at the present mainly due to the change of pig production to an intensive confinement type system without soil contact. The most natural way for slurry removal is its application as soil manure. Unfortunately, most of the farmers dont have enough arable land, near their farms, to apply that residue in the proper doses in order to avoid soil and water pollution according to the EU Directives. As a result, its essential to find technologies which are able to recycle this liquid effluent, solving pig slurry management problem. The aim of the research is the testing of these constructed wetlands in order to minimise the environmental problems of the slurry. Wetlands are a suitable system to reduce pollution by agrarian effluents and as in this case, by pig slurries. In this study, constructed wetlands were tested to study the better working conditions. Farms have a phase separator for the pig slurries by bioaireation process. The solid phase is dried-out and used directly for fertilization. These constructed wetlands contain one gravel layers and a sand surface layer. The plant species selected is Phragmites australis, because it is well adapted to the semiarid climate of the area and also has a fast production of roots and rhizomes. In this study, 780 m3 of pig slurry wastewater from a farm was treated using a set of technical treatments: a solid phase separator, a thicken sludge system, a sedimentation tank, horizontal sub-surface flow constructed wetlands with Phragmites australis, and an anaerobic tank. This research was developed for 1 years (2008- 2009), in a farm located in Lorca (Murcia- southeast of Spain), which is an important pig production area and without enough water for irrigation. 189 samples were analyzed and this led to substantial declines in electrical conductivity by 21%, total suspended solids by 77%, sedimentable solids by 100%, chemical oxygen demand by 40%, total phosphorus by 33%, copper by 84%, zinc by 83% and total nitrogen by 42%. Constructed wetlands constitute a valorization method of the pig slurries for water recycling. This alternative should be considered among others as a solution to manage safely pig slurries and to minimize disposal risks. In conclusion, pig slurry, treated with these systems, will be able to be reutilized for irrigation purposes.