A few years ago, a friend of mine told me that we could minimize water pollution by using Brita water filters and scooping out water from local rivers and ponds. As preposterous as it sounds, the concept of filtering the water was actually a decent idea. But how could you get a filter to fix the pollution in a pond? Do you drain all of the water, put a big filter on top of the pond, and pour the water back in?

Scientists of the Agricultural Research Service are currently testing a filter of sorts that doesn’t actually require some mesh-like mechanism. Floating iris plants can be matted on top of the fishery wastewater to drain nutrients out of fishery water. The wastewater is pumped from the fishery ponds into large tanks upon which the vegetation floats. After the nutrients are absorbed by the mat of plants, the water can then be returned to the ponds, while the nutrients are recycled by producing biomass or plant material.

The researchers are currently examining the amount of nutrients absorbed and the effect that the plants have on water quality to determine if this is an effective method for fishery cleaning.

Discussion Question: Do you think a similar method could be applied to rivers or lakes? Why or why not?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090131124137.htm
Journal Article: http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/dspace/bitstream/10113/29769/1/IND44207243.pdf