This Artificial Wetland Is Reusing Wastewater to Revive a Lost Ecosystem

In the arid The landscape of the pale desert is dominated by the Mexicali region, Las Arenitas felt like a mirage. But it is real and is an oasis for the endemic and nomadic birds passing the Colorado River delta. Here, only the use of water from the Mexicali city south of the US-Mexican border is a second life. The half-nearer Hardy River, for example, continues in an attempt to make ecosystems.

Historically, waterways were full of sewersEspecially the new teaThose who flee from the Colorado river to the United States and fleeing the north of the Salton Sea in California. For many years, this water course has received an unprecedented sewer from Mexicali, show One of the worst contaminated rivers in the United States. In the 1990s, the American and Mexican government ignored the problem and began to cooperate on infrastructure to reduce pollution. Thus, in 2007 in the south of Mexicali, Las Arenitas Treatment Plant operations began.

Mexicali sitting at the border creates more than 80 million cubic meters per year. This total, 90 percent of 90 percent, while going to Las Arenites, 90 percent collected.

Mexicali is one of the hottest cities in the world. In the summer, the region reaches 50 ° C.

Photo: Pablo Romero

Sewage plant, solid items and sediments are originally removed from the wastewater. Next, surface gas lagoes are used, where the weather is pumped into the water to stimulate the growth of aerobic bacteria in the presence of oxygen. The water then passes the aerobic and anaerobic bacteria to the Faculty Lagons, which completed each other, and the second could not be sick. Finally, the water reaches the mature lagons where the remaining remains are located.

This new system has worked when it started. “The plant in the beginning did not implement the ideal way,” he said. In order to fight this, some organizations suggested that they should use a lake in a lake decades ago, the surrounding territories will create an artificial wetland.

It will also help to help the local landscape with such a plan and the city’s sewer problem. Prior to the excess of the Colorado River, Delta and Sonora passed until he was familiar with the waters of the California Gulf, resulting in a 400,000-hectare excessive wetland. Although the river course became a dream, about 15 percent of these swamps, ridiculed the invaluable biodiversity of plants and animals, alright. Las Arenitas, who wants to imitate this power, is a break from the destruction of the local landscape.