Constructed Treatment Wetland Capabilities: Potential to retain trout related disease at the Haliburton Fish Hatchery

Constructed Treatment Wetland Capabilities: Potential to retain trout related disease at the Haliburton Fish Hatchery

Adam Dillon

Haliburton Fish Hatchery

Haliburton Highlands Stewardship Council

TP-543

2006

Haliburton County

Environmental Science
Fish Ecology
Wastwater Treatment

Paper presents research that demonstrates the potential of a constructed treatment wetlands to effectively remove trout pathogens from a waste stream.

Human related pathogen rates vis constructed treatment wetlands (CTW) of up to 100% have been reported; however, removal potential of aquaculture related pathogens is lacking. Therefore, the ability of CTW's to remove aquaculture related pathogens will be speculated upon given differences and similarities between previously investigated microorganisms and trout related pathogens. Common human fecal bacteria are investigated, as well as trout related pathogens common to Ontario. Pathogens are removed from waste streams by CTW's, which employ six removal mechanisms: filtration, predation, unfavourable water chemistry, natural die-off, sedimentation, and temperature effect.

Conclusions regarding a CTW to retain the five trout related pathogens common to Ontario is that they should be effectively removed or inactivated from the wastewater. However, the determination of this purifications is speculative and based on the assumptions that a similar microbial community would be present in the CTW servicing the HFH that exists in the CTWs servicing human domestic applications. Paramount, though, is the validation of this hypothesis with quantitative investigations.

Fleming College