Abstract
Constructed wetlands are environmental solutions that mitigate the impacts of urban effluents. It is unclear how the performance of these wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) is affected by climatic conditions. The dissipation of nutrients, suspended solids, and changes in dissolved oxygen were investigated on a monthly basis over two years (2018/2019) at six sampling points across a WWTP located in Esquel, Patagonia. It was predicted that climatic variables (rain pattern and air temperature) would affect the functioning and efficiency of the WWTP (i.e., via nutrient load mitigation and sediment retention). Rainfall and temporal patterns differed markedly between and throughout the two years, leading to a clear seasonality in the transformation of pollutants. Nitrate loads were significantly higher in 2018 than in 2019 suggesting some degree of operational failure, whereas ammonia levels in treated effluents were extremely high during both years, with marked peaks occurring during autumn 2018 and summer 2019. The WWTP was moderately successful (~36%) in reducing TSS contents during 2018 but was inefficient in 2019. Ammonia levels in receiving waters underwent dilution due to rains rather than due to adequate WWTP nutrient retention. In terms of nutrients, effluent values exceeded those established by governmental regulation during most months, but worsened during summer coinciding with low flows. This lack of predictability for the values of the treated effluent strongly jeopardizes the ecological integrity and biodiversity of the receiving stream.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Eng. Daniel Schvezov from COOP 16 (Esquel-Chubut) for the access permission to WWTP. We are grateful to Dr. Gwion Elis-Williams for English language revision and helpful comments.
Author Contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. LMM conceptualization, collected data, data curation, investigation, methodology & formal analysis, software, writing and editing; LBE conceptualization, collected data, data curation, investigation, methodology, supervision, writing and editing; CNH conceptualization, investigation, work lab, validation, writing & editing review; YAA data curation, methodology, supervision, writing & editing review. MLM conceptualization, investigation, methodology, supervision, writing & editing, funding acquisition and project administration.
Funding
This work has been supported by grant from MINCYT-PICT2016-0180 and PUE-CONICET- 0060/17. LMM, LBE, CNH, YAA and MLM were funded by CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas). We thank CONICET and Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco-SCyT (UNPSJB, R/8 No. 108/2013).
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Manzo, L.M., Epele, L.B., Horak, C.N. et al. Variability in Nutrient Dissipation in a Wastewater Treatment Plant in Patagonia: A Two-Year Overview. Environmental Management 71, 773–784 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01761-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01761-1