Hydraulic Analysis of Orlando Easterly Wetland
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 129, Issue 6
Abstract
Hydraulic testing of the Orlando Easterly Wetland, a constructed treatment wetland located near Christmas, Fla., was performed as part of a more comprehensive study of treatment efficacy of the system. The wetland serves to reduce nutrient loading from tertiary treated wastewater to the St. Johns River, the receiving body. Residence time distribution analysis of bromide tracer tests revealed and quantified inefficiencies (short circuiting and dead zones) in the hydraulic performance within individual treatment cells and the wetland system under the operating conditions studied. Hydraulic efficiencies (ratios of experimentally determined residence times to nominal residence times) of the cells ranged from 11 to 88%, while overall, the wetland was operating at near 50% efficiency during the tracer tests. Short circuiting and dead zones within the wetland are largely the results of historic land alterations, such as ditches, that were not removed during the conversion of the site from drained land to managed wetland. Volume- and area-based system-referenced metrics were developed to identify and prioritize opportunities to improve hydraulics on both cell-by-cell and system scales.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Ackers, P., White, W. R., Perkins, J. A., and Harrison, A. J. M. (1978). Weirs and flumes for flow measurement, Wiley, New York.
Annable, M. D., Jawitz, J. W., Rao, P. S. C., Dai, D. P., Kim, H., and Wood, A. L.(1998). “Field evaluation of interfacial and partitioning tracers for characterization of effective NAPL-water contact areas.” Ground Water,36(3), 495–502.
Bencala, K. E., Rathburn, R. E., Jackman, A. P., Kennedy, V. C., Zellweger, G. W., and Avanzino, R. J.(1983). “Rhodamine WT dye losses in a mountain stream environment.” Water Resour. Bull.,19(6), 943–950.
Black, C. A. (2001). “Evaluation of phosphorous treatment in the Orlando Easterly constructed wetland.” MS thesis, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.
Chow, V. T. (1959). Open-channel hydraulics, McGraw-Hill, Boston.
Cooper, A. B.(1994). “Coupling wetland treatment to land treatment: An innovative method for nitrogen stripping?” Water Sci. Technol., 29(4), 141–149.
Curl, R. L., and McMillan, M. C.(1966). “Accuracy in residence time measurements.” Am. Inst. Chem. Eng. J.,12, 819–822.
Danckwerts, P. V.(1953). “Continuous flow systems: Distribution of residence times.” Chem. Eng. Sci., 2(1), 1–13.
Fogler, H. S. (1999). Elements of chemical engineering, 3rd Ed., Prentice-Hall, N.J.
French, R. H. (1985). Open-channel hydraulics, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Jackson, J. A., Lothrop, T. L., and Sees, M. D. (1995). “Orlando easterly wetlands: Success in the use of reclaimed water for environmental enhancement.” Florida Water Res., August, 31 (36–37).
Kadlec, R. H., and Knight, R. L. (1996). Treatment Wetlands, Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, Fla.
Kindsvater, C. E., and Carter, R. W.(1959). “Discharge characteristics of rectangular thin-plate weirs.” Trans. Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 124(3001), 772–822.
Levenspiel, O. (1972). Chemical reaction engineering, 2nd Ed., Wiley, New York.
Sees, M., and Turner, D. (1997). “Orlando easterly wetlands; Management of a constructed wetland treatment system.” Proc., Florida Lake Management Society 1997 Annual Meeting, May 7–9, 1997. Palm Beach Shores, Fla. 〈http://www.ces.fau.edu/library/flms/24.html〉.
Smart, P. L., and Laidlaw, I. M. S.(1977). “An evaluation of some fluorescent dyes for water tracing.” Water Resour. Res., 13(1), 15–33.
Stairs, D. B. (1993). “Flow characteristics of constructed wetlands: Tracer studies of the hydraulic regime.” MS thesis, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, Ore.
Swindell, C. E., and Jackson, J. A. (1990). “Constructed wetlands design and operation to maximize nutrient removal capabilities.” Constructed wetlands in water pollution control, P. F. Cooper and B. C. Findlater, eds., Pergamon, Oxford, England, 107–114.
U.S. Department of the Interior. (1997). Water measurement manual, 3rd Ed., U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation Technical Publication, Washington, D.C.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA). (1993). “Wetland treatment systems: A Case history, The Orlando easterly wetlands reclamation project.” EPA832-R-93-005i, U.S. EPA Office of Water, Washington, D.C.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 129 • Issue 6 • June 2003
Pages: 553 - 560
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 5, 2002
Accepted: Aug 8, 2002
Published online: May 15, 2003
Published in print: Jun 2003
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.