Wastewater to Wetlands Project Overview
Wetlands are nature's way of controlling flooding, soil erosion, water pollution, and recharging groundwater aquifers. Wetlands are also one of earth's most biologically rich ecosystems, nurturing a wealth of waterfowl, amphibians, fish, and other wildlife. Sadly, no state has suffered a greater loss than California where only nine percent of the original wetlands remain. Sustainable Conservation is investigating innovative ways to recreate wetlands using wastewater from food manufacturing processes.
Constructed wetlands, man-made systems that emulate natural wetland processes to treat wastewater and create critical wildlife habitat, are already widely used by coastal communities to treat municipal wastewater. Private industry is largely unaware of the promise of this proven technology as less than ten percent of the nearly 800 constructed wetlands in the U.S. are associated with industrial sites. Therefore, private industry, particularly food manufacturing (there are over 130 facilities in California's Central Valley), offers a large and untapped source of the water and land resources needed to reestablish wetland acreage.
Sustainable Conservation has developed a suite of strategies to advocate for creating constructed wetlands on privately-held lands, including developing technical assistance materials for businesses and building a constructed wetland at a food manufacturing facility to showcase the multiple benefits of these systems. These efforts seek to raise industry and regulatory decision-maker awareness about the environmental, economic, and social benefits of constructed wetlands. We will advance constructed wetlands as a unique, multi-purpose solution to the water treatment and reuse needs of industry, the habitat requirements of wetland dependent wildlife, and the outdoors desires of the public.
Wastewater to Wetlands represents an unprecedented convergence of waste management and voluntary conservation that provides a unique opportunity for private industry to support the creation of new sustainable wetland resources.
