Yutaro Sasaki
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Guardian
HARRINGTON, P.E.I. – An experiment at a P.E.I. research facility could help Alberta dairy farms build a more sustainable method to irrigate their cattle feed.
A mesocosm is an outdoor experimental system that studies the natural environment under controlled conditions.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientist Audrey Murray is researching using wetlands to filter the sludge that builds up in the dairy farm lagoons currently in use in many Alberta farms, which often contain a high concentration of manure and could offer a positive ecosystem for the soil.
Murray gave a tour of her experiment, which is still in the early phases, to The Guardian on June 13, saying she plans on building a wetland after the lagoon.
The lagoon already provides some treatment to the wastewater, she said.
“The wetland will provide further filtering. Then, the water can be reused for irrigation. People would still be able to land-apply the solids in the lagoon,” Murray added.
While the ultimate project is based in Alberta, Murray is conducting her pilot testing at Harrington Research Farm, analyzing the effectiveness of mesocosms when applied with dairy wastewater from P.E.I.
Mesocosm
A mesocosm is an outdoor experimental system that studies the natural environment under controlled conditions.
“We’ll take dairy wastewater from the P.E.I., run it through our mesocosms with different retention times, different soil types, different styles of wetlands, to try and decide the best design before we build a full-scale wetland,” Murray said.
The project, which is funded by Alberta Innovates and Result Driven Research, is exciting, she said.
“I’ve already had a few people call me — farmers or others interested in building waste treatment. There’s a whole number of applications for this on their farms,” said Murray.
There doesn’t seem to be anything in the public realm right now that shows how to design this kind of system.
“So, to be able to give some of that guidance and help them out because they want to help the environment, that’s cool, right?” said Murray.
Sharing ideas
Murray says she has an idea of how to treat the wastewater.
“As scientists, we read all the other scientists’ work. And sometimes they perform well, sometimes they don’t,” she said.
Mesocosms are much smaller, and this will allow them to change the flow rate and design, Murray said.
“We need to make the most efficient use of water as possible (in terms of the project),” she said.
Possible benefits
Wetlands have a huge number of ecosystem benefits, Murray said.
“They provide to the environment, so it helps the environment and it provides water for farmers, so it helps the farmers out, too,” she said.
As a result, there’s sort of a net benefit and it’s a nature-based treatment for the environment, Murray added.
“I would like to see something that works. (Hopefully) it provides a high quality of water, but also works with the farming practices and helps the farmer,” she said.
“Then we will produce a set of guidelines, Alberta-specific and dairy wastewater specific, so that if other farmers want to build this, they can,” Murray said.
Yutaro Sasaki is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter, a position funded by the federal government. He can be reached at ysasaki@postmedia.com and followed on X @PEyutarosasaki.
