Question

How did a citizen group called Friends of Arcata Marsh Arcata, California, USA, help to improve the water quality of the marshland using Integrated Waste Water Treatment? Explain in four steps.

Answer 1

Waste water including sewage can be treated in an integrated manner by utilizing a mix of the artificial and natural process. It has been done in the town of Arcata, in the northern coast of California.

The treatment is done in four stages:

1. In the first stage, physical impurities are removed by conventional sedimentation, filtering, and chlorine treatments.
2. In the second stage, the biologists developed a series of six connected marshes over 60 hectares of marshland.
3. Appropriate plants, algae, fungi, and bacteria were seeded in this area, which would help neutralize, absorb, and assimilate the pollutants.
4. Finally, as the water flows through the marshes, it becomes purified naturally.