Talking Water Gardens includes a series of hydro-logical features within the 50-acre site (37-acre treatment wetland cells) to replicate what happens in nature. Fed by treated wastewater from the Albany-Millersburg Water Reclamation Facility and ATI, the Talking Water Gardens consist of:
Wetland cells one to five feet deep, containing extensive stands of emergent vegetation open-water habitat areas.
Waterfalls and weirs to provide aeration, mixing, and sound – the namesake “talking water.” Inflow points are designed as rock waterfalls varying in height from one-foot drops to cascades of 15 feet. The natural topography is used to provide aeration and mixing by waterfalls to enrich oxygen content in the water and enhance growth of plants and organisms that will consume the nutrients.
Plantings of floating wetlands vegetation, wildflowers, scrub and marsh plants and trees to prevent erosion and help reduce water temperature by providing shade in the wetland cells. Plants were selected to provide an aesthetically pleasing and varied natural environment that promotes biodiversity and wildlife habitat.
Trails and signage explaining the hydrological forces at work in the wetlands to naturally condition the water for its return to nearby streams. Talking Water Gardens will become a destination for walking, wildlife watching and environmental education opportunities. It is an area that respects the history of the land – past, present and future.
The natural purification at work in this wetlands environment includes uptake and filtering by plants, microbial conversion, volatilization, adsorption, and deposition. Aerobic and anaerobic biological processes in wetlands neutralize and capture most of the dissolved nutrients and elements from the water, resulting in the discharge of cleaner water.
In their pilot-scale research, project planners learned that treatment of combined municipal and industrial wastewater in wetlands created symbiotic conditions that exceeded regulatory requirements and predictions based on the North American Treatment Wetland Database (1).
(1) Treatment Wetland Habitat and Wildlife Use Assessment and North American Treatment Wetland Database Version 2.0 (EPA/600/C-94/002) 1994. EPA sponsored a project to collect information from wastewater treatment wetlands and catalog the information in a computer database. The database contains information for 323 wetland cells at 178 locations in the United States and Canada and includes general information as well as water quality data (e.g., biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, N-series particulates, phosphorous, dissolved oxygen, and fecal coliforms).