Hydrologic and water-quality characteristics of a Wetland receiving wastewater effluent in St. Joseph, Minnesota

Abstract

Hydrologic and water-quality characteristics were determined for a wetland being used for tertiary treatment of wastewater in St. Joseph, Minnesota. The wetland consists of spruce-tamarack fen and a cattail marsh, with the wastewater being discharged into the fen, and the fen draining into the marsh. The wetland is underlain by flat-lying glacial outwash that ranges from 0 to greater than 20 m in thickness. Horizontal ground-water movement in the outwash aquifer is toward the wetland from the south, east, and west. There is a strong upward vertical hydraulic gradient (about 0.1) in the ground-water flow system beneath and around the wetland. Regionally, the glacial-outwash aquifer is unconfined, but it is confined or partly confined locally by peat deposits under the wetland. Analysis of the hydrologic balance of the fen from October 1985 through September 1986 indicates that the inflow was 44 percent ground water, 38 percent wastewater, 11 percent runoff (storm sewer), and 7 percent precipitation. The fen outflow was 93 percent surface water and 7 percent evapotranspiration. Inflow to the marsh was 74 percent surface water, 21 percent ground water, and 5 percent precipitation. Outflow from the marsh was 94 percent surface water and 6 percent evapotranspiration. Wastewater contributed 74,996, and 81 percent of the total suspended solids, total phosphorus, and total ammonia plus organic nitrogen in the fen, respectively. Other chemical inputs were from the storm sewer, ground water, and atmospheric deposition. The fen was found to retain 34, 14, and 14 percent of the suspended solids, total phosphorus, and total ammonia plus organic nitrogen, respectively. The marsh retained 44, 18, and 22 percent of these three constituents, respectively.