A video clip taking you on a tour of the Wellsville Municipal Sewage Lagoons. Filmed August 2011 in the morning when duckweed was covering the entire lagoons (if it was windier then the duckweed in each lagoon would have been all piled up in a corner).
Corrections:
ReplyDeleteWith respect to losing 54% of the incoming water to evaporation and seepage: (see note below because long***)--it's possible that 43-53% due to evaporation and only 1-10% due to seepage.
Actual date of filming: August 19, 2011 @ 11:30am
Six month growing season of full-coverage: mid-May to November 19th (World Toilet Day)
Neighboring Logan lagoons without duckweed are being researched for phosphorus removal and biofuel using ALGAE--instead of duckweed.
Regarding fungi in lagoons (see earlier post Feb. 2011, "More on duckweed inhibitors")
Regarding duckweed growing atop ice (see earlier post Jan. 2011, "Duckweed Performance in Cold Climates")
Animals nearby/in the lagoons: frogs, turtles, hawks, ducks, geese, cattle.
The "material" lining the cages is nylon/polyester and keeps Wolffia borealis from passing through the aluminum window screening.
***Note: assume 0.547MGD*365days = flow-in = 200Mgal/yr; assume 0.252MGD*365 = flow-out; therefore, 54% water lost between influent/effluent; assume, 4324MJ/m^2-year solar radiation and 2.43MJ/L-vaporized (Latent Heat of Vaporization) is equivalent to 106Mgal/yr.; therefore, 106Mgal/200Mgal = 53% due to evaporation AND transpiration=evaporation therefore plausible that ALL water loss due to evporation; BUT!!! less water loss when lagoons covered in ice--this taken into acount would mean that about 43% water loss due to evporation and about 10% due to seepage.