TWG: Water Science Visualised EarthCache
TWG: Water Science Visualised
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Don’t forget your camera; while a photo isn’t required for the earthcache, you won’t be able to stop yourself from taking one or two to share with your log. Binoculars would also be a great item to take; bird species are plentiful and vocal.
The Albany-Millersburg Talking Water Gardens is the first public/private engineering project of its kind in the United States: a constructed treatment wetland designed to provide an additional level of natural treatment for a combined municipal and industrial wastewater flow. It will be the final step in returning this treated water safely to the Willamette River.
To protect our state’s vital aquatic habitat, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has mandated new limits on the total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) that public and private entities can place into the Willamette River, intended to lower river temperature and remove additional pollutants before the treated water is safely returned to rivers and streams. Typically, the water being discharged from WRF and ATI was 5 degrees warmer than the new regulations permitted, and increasingly higher temperatures in the river have contributed to declines in coldwater fish species.
Talking Water Gardens includes a series of hydro-logical features within the site to replicate what happens in nature. The wetland is designed to operate year-round with a total flow of up to 12.6 million gallons per day. Electricity pumps water from WRF and ATI to the wetlands, where it is gravity-fed through the rest of the natural treatment processes. In natural wetlands, energy for operations comes from the sun, wind, soil, and topography.
An investment in sustainability, TWG reduces water temperature to meet guidelines and protect sensitive fish habitat, naturally aerates and treats water to improve water quality and restores riparian forest and wetland through plantings of native species.
To claim this earthcache find, answer the following questions about this engineered wetland. Email the CO with your answers.
1. The constructed wetlands have three water-cleansing and cooling processes. What are these three processes? (hint: 2 of them start with ‘w’)
2. When standing at the given coordinates, and facing north across the marsh, which point of the water flow do you see to your right? Be specific.
3. Identify the immediate source of water that directly feeds into the top of the Water Wall.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)