The H-02 Wetland Treatment System is used to remove heavy metals (e.g., copper and zinc) from the H-Area process and storm water discharge. Routine flow enters an equalization basin by inlets on either the east (Location 1) or west end (Location 2). The west end influent constitutes 75% of the average flow into the basin which has an average residence time of approximately 3 days at low pool (i.e., 120 gal/min. through a volume of 0.5 million gallons). The water then exits via the basin outlet on the east end. Next, the water flows to a splitter box (Location 3) which evenly separates the flow between two wetland cells for a design flow of 60 gal/min. per wetland cell with a residence time in the cell of approximately 2 days. The wetland effluent is then combined (Location 4) and flows through a spillway before reaching the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) measurement point near Road 4. During initial operation, it was observed that the pH of the water leaving the equalization basin was elevated compared to the influent pH. Furthermore, the elevated pH remained through the wetland cells so that there was an average pH of 10 leaving the wetland cells during the daytime which exceeds the upper NPDES limit of 8.5. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the cause of the increase in pH within the equalization basin of the H-02 Wetland Treatment System.
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