ABSTRACT

This chapter presents the joint experience of a private wastewater treatment company and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, modifying the traditional design conditions of a horizontal subsurface flow artificial wetland system. A small wastewater treatment plant was built for the cafeteria of a tourist inn at km 193 of the Mexico-Queretaro highway in the town of El Marques, state of Queretaro, Mexico. Artificial wetlands can be used as a supplementary system in an existing water treatment plant to improve water quality and can also be used as the main treatment system in small communities. Emergent plants that are frequently used in the construction of artificial wetlands for wastewater treatment are bulrushes, reeds, among many others. The hard rock terrains such as basalt, slabs and volcanic rock, are difficult to excavate and require more specialized machinery and personnel, so they can increase construction costs to more than three hundred percent.