Constructed wetland technology has been used for many years as an effective treatment of municipal wastewater. Only in recent years have these technologies been looked at for use in treating agricultural runoff. The problematic runoff usually comes from domestic feed lots of confined animals. This runoff can contain high levels of nitrogen, ammonia, phosphates, and solid wastes. Due to an increase in rural housing closer to these feed lots there is interest in finding methods of dealing with this waste that is more publicly acceptable than traditional methods. Traditionally the waste was either left on site or spread over fields for fertilization. The main downside to this was odor problems. If the pollutants were left for too long on site they could concentrate or leach out into the groundwater, possibly into drinking water, where it would become more of a problem. Wetland control of this problem can be a permanent and effective solution.
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