Artificial Wetlands

From Great Lakes Wiki

"More than half of U.S. wetlands have been drained for development, farmland, and other purposes. That's 100 million acres now dried up. The Bush administration has continued "no net loss" policy of any more wetlands. So, when someone wants to drain a marsh or a swamp for, say, a new housing development, they've got to build a man- made wetland to replace it. But a new study is finding that most of those man-made wetlands aren't doing very well," the Great Lakes Radio Consortium reports.

The Great Lakes Radio Consortium (GLRC) prepared an [extensive analysis on artificial wetlands, also known as constructed wetlands, and why they do or don't work and what's necessary to sustain them. The link above takes you to a podcast by reporter Julie Grant, as well as analysis on Bush's "no net loss" policy.

An artificial, or constructed, wetland is essentially a water treatment facility. It is a human-made ecosystem designed to duplicate processes of biology, chemistry and ecology that occur in nature.

"They are used to treat municipal wastewater, agricultural runoff, stormwater runoff, animal wastes, acid mine drainage and landfill leachates," the GLRC report says.

If properly built they can effectively remove many pollutants associated with municipal and industrial wastewater and stormwater.

The report outlines both the benefits and drawbacks to constructing artificial wetlands.