Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2017CO503G

Hydrodynamic-Enhancement of Nitrate Attenuation by Integrating Reactive Biobarriers into Shallow, Open Water Treatment Wetlands

Institute: Colorado
USGS Grant Number: G17AP00133
Year Established: 2017 Start Date: 2017-09-18 End Date: 2020-09-17
Total Federal Funds: $250,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $287,623

Principal Investigators: Jonathon Sharp

Project Summary: As we envision water treatment in the 21st century and beyond, there is growing\r\ninterest in the integration of natural water treatment infrastructure that has the ability for bothwater storage and the improvement of water quality while simultaneously providing recreational, aesthetic and wildlife habitat benefits. Engineered wetlands have immense promise in these and other areas; however, broad adoption has been limited due to concerns about the impact of seasonality, preferential flow paths, and other variables on performance and reliability as well as the large surface area needed for effective treatment. Our project goal is to decrease the footprint while increasing the reliability and resiliency of an engineered wetland design by enhancing biological contaminant transformation capacity. This will be approached through passive hydrologic manipulation that utilizes microbially active treatment barriers that increase water exchange within a vertically stratified biomat while also facilitating complementary biological attenuation processes.