A UF team lead by Steven Laux and Tim Townsend designed a new, sustainable wetlands-filtration system for Polk County’s landfill. Previously, the county was collecting the facility’s leachate and having it hauled to an off-site treatment facility, at a cost of $2.5 million per year. Leachate is the liquid that filters to the bottom of a landfill; it has the potential to contaminate groundwater.
The new system uses constructed wetlands to break down chemicals on site to meet ground water standards, which is a low-energy solution for treating leachate. The system is expected to pay for itself in leachate-transport fees in five years. Although such systems have been built elsewhere, they are still uncommon, so Polk’s project could serve as a model for other Florida communities.
View Related Expert Profiles: Go to Source
