At a Glance
Constructed wetlands help a cattle company treat and reuse wastewater on sight.
Project Description
The Maui Cattle Company was developing a new meat-processing facility near a residential area. The client desired a wastewater treatment and reuse system that minimizes odor, provides reuse-quality treatment in an environmentally-sensitive manner and supplies reclaimed effluent for pasture irrigation.
The treatment facility is designed to produce reuse-quality effluent from up to 14,000 gpd of high-strength wash-down water from the plant. Treatment components include prescreening and a dissolved-air flotation (DAF) unit, roughing and nitrification trickling filters, subsurface flow constructed wetlands, a recirculating sand filter, mechanical filtration, and UV disinfection. Reclaimed effluent will be stored in an onsite, covered irrigation pond. Approximately five acres of pasture land will be irrigated with the effluent, drastically reducing the facility’s water consumption.
Biohabitats integrated conventional pretreatment technologies (screens and DAF) with treatment components based upon natural processes (wetlands, sand filter, trickling filters) to handle industrial-strength effluent in a mechanically simple and energy efficient process.