Wetland Effluent Treatment Systems
Environmentally sensitive solutions
Sector: Water & the Environment
WETLAND EFFLUENT TREATMENT SYSTEMS
A low cost, practical, easy to maintain, sustainable and environmentally sensitive solution to effluent treatment.
At Ayesa we take a pragmatic approach to effluent management from generation through treatment to disposal. Our first step is to always assess your needs.
Site-Specific Solutions
We develop a site-specific solution that satisfies our client’s needs while being environmentally sustainable, cost-effective and practical to maintain.
Our approach includes point source discharge assessments based on the EPR H1 Environmental Risk Assessment requirements; These requirements include evaluating the impacts on receiving water bodies and identifying the effluent treatment to meet the outlined discharge limits. Once we identify the appropriate solution, we liaise with the water utility operator and the Environment Agency to secure the discharge consent to land, surface water, or sewer.
We have used Wetland treatment across a range of industrial or municipal effluents, and it can be utilised as a stand-alone design or integrated with other technologies.
Wetland Effluent Treatment Systems can assist clients in resilience and netzero goals
Our pillar of Commitment to Clients guides our ethical duty to provide sustainable schemes that improve the quality of life and preserve natural resources and ecosystems for future generations.
Our in-house Environmental and Sustainability team, who work with companies, governments and private entities, can work together with our geoscience and waste management teams providing Environmental Management Plans (EMPs) or other specialist consulting assistance as required.
“Nature-based solutions can help clients achieve resilience, sustainability and net-zero goals”
Recent projects
Location: Scotland
Project Name: Bishopton Development
Country: UK
Client: BAE Systems
1. Solving an effluent treatment problem on the site of Britain’s largest brownfield regeneration project.
Background: Located near Glasgow, Bishopton is home to Dargavel Village, one of the UK’s largest brownfield regeneration projects. BAE Systems is redeveloping the 2,400-acre site of the former Royal Ordnance Factory into a modern, wellconnected community featuring 4,000 homes along with retail, community, transport, and commercial facilities. Dargavel Village is expected to be completed by 2034.
Our Role: Ayesa supported BAE Systems in addressing a complex effluent treatment challenge at the Bishopton redevelopment site through the implementation of a 2,000 m² reed bed and integrated leachate management system. We designed this system, which was constructed in 2013 and has since undergone biological process commissioning, becoming fully operational. As part of the site’s remediation efforts, contaminated soils were excavated and disposed of in a landfill, with the leachate from the landfill treated prior to discharge into the local surface water system. The design includes contingencies for the ongoing expansion of the landfill and ensures that any leachable contaminants from an adjacent soil washing pad are effectively degraded before being discharged into a nearby watercourse.
Our integrated system offers a sustainable solution capable of handling intermediate-strength landfill leachates, with ammonia concentrations that are below the average threshold for conventional treatment plants (<200 mg/l) but higher than those typically managed in reed beds (5 to 20 mg/l).
2. Vegetable Processing Factory Effluent
Background: In the initial phase of our Environmental Permit submission, we conducted a groundwater risk assessment, which indicated that the site’s effluent (ranging from 600 to 1,100 m /day) could safely continue discharging into the groundwater soakaway.
Alongside our application, we evaluated the existing lagoon aeration and reed bed treatment system. Based on our assessment, our team proposed sustainable enhancements to futureproof the design and improve treatment efficiency.
3. Landfill Leachate Reed Bed: Treatment & Discharge Support
Background: An aging reedbed site, designed approximately 15 years ago, was underperforming, putting the client at risk of prosecution by the Environment Agency.
Our Role: Initially, we adjusted the discharge consent in the Environmental Permit and provided guidance on the necessary remediation of the existing system to effectively treat high-ammonia effluent inflows. Once we developed a detailed and precise mitigation plan, Ayesa applied to the Environment Agency for the permit to discharge from the system into a local watercourse, which was successfully granted.
Recent applications
• Veolia Environmental Services: Veolia is a leading resource management company in the UK, offering a variety of waste, water, and energy management services. On their behalf, our team conducted two H1 Environmental Risk and Best Available Techniques (BAT) assessments, along with discharge consent applications to permit the release of aerobic bioreactor-treated landfill leachate into the sewer system. We also carried out treatability trials and developed a comprehensive process design for one of the sites, which has served as the foundation for the tender stage of the design and build process.
• HJ Banks – Palmersville Landfill: Ayesa developed the process design and prepared the EPR permit submissions to enable the installation of a wetland treatment system at the Palmersville Landfill site. Leachate levels within the landfill were intentionally allowed to rise and overflow into the reedbed system, as part of the passive management strategy for the eventual surrender of the EPR Permit. In addition, the wetlands receive surface water runoff from a nearby residential development.
• Shepard Landfill Site: Our team developed the process design for a settlement and reedbed system to treat runoff water from the landfill. The treatment was necessary to address various potential contaminants, including BOD, organic pollutants, and heavy metals.
• Industrial Waste Landfill: The leachate from this site (shown below) exhibited high concentrations of ammonia, metals, and volatile organic compounds. Treatment was necessary to permit the discharge of the treated effluent into surface water. We conducted a thorough review of the volumetric flow data, water chemistry, and load to identify which substances needed treatment. By categorizing contaminants (such as solvents, VOCs, priority metals, ammonium, and degradable
organic matter), we were able to select the most suitable treatment methods. Using first principles, we designed an integrated system that combines air stripping, sedimentation, and a reedbed, ensuring the treatment components are appropriately sized for the discharge of treated effluent from the site.
• Alkaline / Hypersaline Industrial Effluent: Ayesa developed a sustainable wetland/ reedbed treatment system to remove copper and nickel from hypersaline and caustic cement kiln dust effluent. Our team conducted trials from benchtop experiments to on-site pilotscale tests as part of the design process. The system was designed for low maintenance and sustainability, particularly suited for remote locations with limited access to services. By using this system, the need for high-volume acid dosing and ion-exchange treatments, which are usually required for treating complex, biologically inhibitory hypersaline effluents, is eliminated.
• Cement Kiln Effluent: We developed a passive constructed wetland system for a closed quarry and cement kiln dust tip. This scheme is designed to precipitate calcium and iron from the site’s runoff water, preventing the contamination of incoming streams with an ironcalcified emulsion. This system supports the ongoing restoration efforts to transform the site into a nature reserve.
• Domestic Sewer Effluent Management System: We developed a short rotation coppice (Willow) wastewater management system in an environmentally sensitive area where regulatory authorities prohibited the discharge of nutrientrich effluent. We chose the willow coppice system because it is one of the few options that does not involve liquid discharge; instead, water is managed through evapotranspiration (ET). ET encompasses the combined processes of evaporation from water surfaces, evaporation of soil moisture, and plant transpiration.
WORKING WITH US
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