Prepared in cooperation with the Indiana Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration.
AbstractOn-site treatment of wastewater at highway rest areas poses some unique and difficult challenges because of the rural locale, high variability in wastewater flow rate and strength, and lack of knowledgeable personnel on-site. As a potential alternative, a constructed subsurface wetland system was built at the I-70 rest stop nearby Greenfield, Indiana, in 2003. This wetland system, mainly composed of three wetland cells, also includes draw-and-fill and recirculation mechanisms to increase oxygen transfer to the wastewater and improve the overall treatment performance. Special considerations for highway rest areas have been emphasized. A dynamic hydraulic model was developed to help characterize the flows in the system and estimate the hydraulic retention time. The size of the Greenfield wetland was found to be sufficient in providing pretreatment that could help avoid potential surcharge from the local treatment plant, but was inadequate for direct onsite discharge. Though the draw-and-fill and recirculation mechanisms provided some treatment benefits, they raised the construction costs and maintenance needs. Constructed wetlands have been described as low-maintenance systems compared to other conventional wastewater treatment approaches, but proper maintenance of the wetland facilities was found to be a key factor in achieving good performance. Since wetland systems in highway rest areas have not been studied, this study provided useful information for possible future implementation of such systems.
Key WordsWastewater treatment, wetlands, highway rest areas, recirculation system.
Distribution StatementNo restrictions. This document is available to the public through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratitude is expressed to the Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP) at PurdueUniversity for providing the funds to conduct the research described here. Numerous people have been involved with this project in various capacities, and they have been listed below. Their help in this effort is acknowledged.
SUMMARYOn-site treatment of wastewater at highway rest areas poses some unique and different challenges. As a potential alternative, a constructed subsurface wetland system was built at the I-70 rest stop nearby Greenfield, Indiana in 2003. This wetland system, mainly composing of three wetland cells, also includes special cyclic draw-and-fill and recirculation mechanisms to increase oxygen transfer to the wastewater and improve the overall treatment performance. Additionally, a sand mound biofield was also included to test the applicability of final treatment and subsurface discharge.After several years of system operation, this final report summarizes the overall project experience. The size of Greenfield wetland was found to be sufficient in providing pretreatment that could help avoid potential surcharge from the local treatment plant, bu...