Defining wetlands.I read with interest David J David J. Haskins (b. April 24, 1957, in Northampton, England) is a British alternative rock musician. He was the bassist for the seminal gothic rock band Bauhaus. Life and work . Tenenbaum's article about constructed wetlands in the January 2004 issue of EHP EHP abbr. 1. effective horsepower 2. electric horsepower (Tenenbaum 2004). While I noted his caveat that "their design remains a bit of an uncertain art," I think he should have gone further to ensure that engineers do not immediately embrace constructed wetlands as a panacea for waste treatment and decontamination decontamination /de·con·tam·i·na·tion/ (de?kon-tam-i-na´shun) the freeing of a person or object of some contaminating substance, e.g., war gas, radioactive material, etc. de·con·tam·i·na·tion n. . I also find myself increasingly unsettled by articles such as this one as potentially and inadvertently capitalizing on the opinion of the populace that wetlands are good places--a widespread view these days (deservedly so) because of excellent advocacy by government agencies and environmental nongovernment organizations such as Ducks Unlimited Ducks Unlimited is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of wetlands and associated upland habitats for waterfowl, other wildlife, and people. It currently has approximately 775,000 members, mostly in the United States and Canada. . Although the sewage treatment Sewage treatment Unit processes used to separate, modify, remove, and destroy objectionable, hazardous, and pathogenic substances carried by wastewater in solution or suspension in order to render the water fit and safe for intended uses. facilities promoted in the article (Tenenbaum 2004) may resemble wetlands, they are far from the real thing, or at least as far as the term is generally understood. In fact, I noted that later in the article Tenenbaum turned his attention to wetland restoration projects. In my experience, these again generally involve real wetlands, so to speak. Thus our wetland contrivances, enhancements, or other more utilitarian versions are more fairly not referred to as "restoration" for the straightforward reason that the former condition of these sites, the target for restoration, did not include sewage treatment. The waste treatment benefits from constructed wetlands are dear, and Tenenbaum (2004) is to be commended for pointing this out as well as the uncertain risks. We cross the line, however, when we pitch constructed wetlands without mentioning the caveat that these surrogate ecologic features are intended to become contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. (per heavy metal sinks, for example) and that this will impair other uses for these facilities, including use as habitat for species that rely on wetlands and cannot discern the real from the fake. Nature's way advises us to be responsible about our waste generation at the source and not to dress up the end-of-pipe solution. The author declares he has no competing financial interests. Harald Schraeder Biologist St. Thomas, Ontario St. Thomas is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat for Elgin County and part of the greater London urban area, gaining its city charter on March 4, 1881. History The city, located at the intersection of two historical roads, was first settled in 1810. , Canada E-mail: hschran623@rogers.com REFERENCE Tenenbaum DJ. 2004. Constructed wetlands: borrowing a concept from nature. Environ Health Perspect 112:A44-A48. |
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