Nutrient Farming and Traditional Removal: An Economic Comparison

Nutrient control via large-scale treatment wetlands holds great potential for wastewater treatment plants. To better gauge that potential, this project conducted an economic analysis of conventional treatment in comparison with treatment wetlands based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended nutrient criteria. As a result, the project was able to derive cost equations for nutrient removal using conventional wastewater technology and treatment wetlands. Additionally, the project also created a nutrient removal model—and associated parameters—for treatment wetlands and demonstrated the savings in capital and operating costs that treatment wetlands can provide. Published by WERF. 58 pages. Soft cover and free online PDF.

Originally funded as WERF project 03-WSM-6CO.