Sponsored by the Pima County Wastewater Management Department, with research conducted by the University of Arizona's Office of Arid Lands Studies, CERF provides researchers a setting in which to evaluate the effectiveness of a constructed wetlands facility in an arid land climate. Also research is an important component in a recent project funded by the Arizona Department of Water Resources. The University of Arizona, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Rovey Dairy in Glendale are working together on a constructed wetland project to treat the dairy's wastewater. The project serves a dual purpose, to provide an operating dairy with a working wastewater treatment system and to allow researchers an opportunity to study the workings of a wetland system. Constructed wetlands are sufficiently recent to Arizona that regulatory agencies generally regard them as non-traditional.
Efforts are underway to adopt appropriate constructed wetland regulations.
ADEQ officials organized a Total Quality Improvement team to identify issues inhibiting wetland construction in Arizona and to recommend solutions to regulatory and technical concerns. ADEQ is in the process of reviewing current agency practices to better incorporate TYI recommendations, Randall said. Constructed wetlands have varied treatment capabilities and can remove contaminants from various kinds of water. Constructed wetlands are used to treat municipal effluents, industrial and commercial wastewaters, agricultural runoff, stormwater runoff, animal wastes, acid mine drainage and landfill leachates. A topic of growing interest, constructed wetlands will be the featured topic in the next Arroyo , to be published in April.