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Photo: Manure stored on an enclosed cement pad to control seepage
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The Thompsons operate a fifty-cow dairy farm in Frenchfort. The dairy barn has a tie stall stable with a barn cleaner and booms. The solid manure used to be piled behind the barn on the ground surface and hauled away several times a year.
As with any solid manure piles, especially ones resulting from silage feed, manure juice and rain water runoff is of great concern of farmers. Also on dairy farms, the milkhouse wash water poses environmental problems as well.
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Photo: Settling Pond where water collects after filtering through the manure
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In 1996, the Thompsons constructed a wetland for wastewater treatment in the form of a man-made marsh. It was designed, built and operated to stimulate the water quality and improve the ability of natural wetlands. The wetlands are designed to enhance physical, chemical, and biological processes in natural wetlands that treat wastewater instead of using complicated mechanical systems. They contain a complex of wetland plants, microscopic organisms, aerobic and anaerobic substances and a meandering water patch.
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Photo: Clarification Pond #2
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This complex process removes nutrients, organic compounds, and metals, and increases oxygen and pH levels in a variety of wastewater. Constructed wetlands presently treat municipal, domestic, agricultural, industrial, acid mine drainage, and non-point source wastewater as well as urban storm water runoff in many countries around the world.
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Photo: Clarification Pond #3
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The Thompsons built a storage area where manure is piled onto a concrete pad. Within the storage, a manhole and a 6 inch diameter pvc pipe drains the manure juices toward a corner. A down spout also collects milkhouse wash water and rainwater from the barn roof. The extra water from the roof keeps the system flushed and dilutes the concentrations of the manure liquid and milkhouse wash water. With the help of gravity, the pipe outlets into the primary holding pond of the artificial wetland. From there, the effluent enters a three tier clearing pond and then seeps into the remainder of the wetland. The ponds have cattails and other complex plants growing in them which clean the water. The bulk of the treatment occurs in these three ponds. The effluent then enters the duck pond with insects, ducks, and other birds for polishing.
- Odour is not strong
- The land used was always low and marshy and unusable for traditional farming practices
- The system helped deal with the problem of milk waste which would normally clog a septic system
- Barn manure is now not left to sit on the fields
- The manure is safer and it's easier to spread because it's drier
- Relatively low cost construction and no operating cost compared to conventional wastewater treatment
- Simple operation.
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