Field scale prototype anaerobic/wetlands cells for removing heavy metals from water leaching from a historical capped landfill

British Columbia Mine Reclamation Symposium

Field scale prototype anaerobic/wetlands cells for removing heavy metals from water leaching from a historical capped landfill Duncan, William F. A. (William Frederick Alexander); Mattes, Al

Abstract

A passive treatment system utilizing an anaerobic digester followed by three plant based treatment cells has been built in Trail, British Columbia, site of the world's largest nonferrous smelter. Water becomes contaminated with heavy metals as it passes through discarded materials from the smelter and through a former Arsenic storage area. This water, containing large amounts of dissolved Zn., Cd., and As is collected and pumped to the pilot scale treatment facility. The facility, capable of treating 12-15,000 L of water daily includes a large anaerobic digester that utilizes waste by-product from the pulp and paper industry as a matrix for Sulphur Reducing Bacteria. The partially treated water then flows through a series of hydroponics cells containing a mixture of metal-resistant fast growing plants. The system uses gravity based hydroponics flow-through and solar powered aeration cells between garden cells. During the summer months transpiration will yield expected (or greater) results. All plants are perennials and after two months of operation there were no signs of impaired plant functioning.

Item Metadata

Title	Field scale prototype anaerobic/wetlands cells for removing heavy metals from water leaching from a historical capped landfill
Creator	Duncan, William F. A. (William Frederick Alexander); Mattes, Al
Contributor	British Columbia Mine Reclamation Symposium; University of British Columbia. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering
Date Issued	1999
Description	A passive treatment system utilizing an anaerobic digester followed by three plant based treatment cells has been built in Trail, British Columbia, site of the world's largest nonferrous smelter. Water becomes contaminated with heavy metals as it passes through discarded materials from the smelter and through a former Arsenic storage area. This water, containing large amounts of dissolved Zn., Cd., and As is collected and pumped to the pilot scale treatment facility. The facility, capable of treating 12-15,000 L of water daily includes a large anaerobic digester that utilizes waste by-product from the pulp and paper industry as a matrix for Sulphur Reducing Bacteria. The partially treated water then flows through a series of hydroponics cells containing a mixture of metal-resistant fast growing plants. The system uses gravity based hydroponics flow-through and solar powered aeration cells between garden cells. During the summer months transpiration will yield expected (or greater) results. All plants are perennials and after two months of operation there were no signs of impaired plant functioning.
Extent	604427 bytes
Genre	Conference Paper
Type	Text
File Format	application/pdf
Language	eng
Date Available	2009-06-25
Provider	Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI	10.14288/1.0042342
URI	http://hdl.handle.net/2429/9632
Affiliation	Non UBC
Peer Review Status	Unreviewed
Scholarly Level	Other
Copyright Holder	British Columbia Technical and Research Committee on Reclamation
Rights URI	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository	DSpace

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