Passive Filtration for Cattle Runoff
Willow Creek Sub-District
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Characteristics
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Benefits
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Project Overview
Cattle are commonly brought into corrals in farmyards to overwinter. During these winter months, leftover feed, bedding materials, and manure accumulate in these spaces, being deposited into layers through trampling and snowfall. Due to cold winter temperatures these materials do not breakdown which results in a buildup of nutrient rich sediment. During spring melt, runoff from the corrals can mobilize the nutrients, resulting in them being transported through natural tributaries and municipal drains ultimately flowing into Lake Winnipeg.
This property, which is a total of 160 acres contains 124 acres of crop land and pasture, 14 acres of deciduous forest, and a 21-acre yard site which includes the 1-acre wintering site for their cattle. The wintering site is approximately 100 meters from the municipal ditch, which allowed for particulate matter to runoff and become mobile in the water of this nearby infrastructure-based tributary.
EIWD was approached by this landowner with a goal to develop a system that reduces eutrophication, contamination and erosion protentional. With these goals in mind, a system was designed to mimic the biological and physical processes of natural systems, similar to the system installed in the Village of Dunnottar in 2015. EWID worked with this landowner to find a common goal and a feasible solution to the problem at hand.
The project consisted of constructing a small retention pond in which the overwintering site would drain into, supply and install a manhole lift station; and construct a granular filter. The site includes a 150 m2 passive filter and a 670 m2 settling pond.
The discharge from this project is then finally filtered though a series of wetlands which utilizes natural infrastructure and filtration systems to release the reclaimed water from this system. This is why riparian areas and wetlands are an essential part of our landscape. The provide a natural ability to filter and remove excess amount of nutrient and particulate from water before it enters our larger water bodies in the watershed.
The benefits of riparian and wetland projects provide a multitude of environmental benefits such as increased biodiversity, improved surface water quality, natural revegetation, and aid in reduced sediment, harmful bacteria, and nutrients in the runoff.
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