Use of vegetation to mitigate nutrient discharges in container nursery runoff

Sedimentation in an abandoned irrigation pond (lower pond) at a container nursery facility in Cumberland County, New Jersey, has created a shallow wetland area. This wetland receives nutrient-rich overflow from an on-site tailwater recovery system. Three years of surface water quality monitoring data revealed that this discharge was negatively impacting receiving waters. In the fall of 2004 and summer of 2005, 4,000 native wetland plants were used to modify existing conditions at the wetland. Almost one year of water quality monitoring data was collected to determine the effectiveness of these plants in removing nutrients from the system and mitigating the impact of the system discharge on water quality. Monitoring results show that the addition of vegetation to the lower pond reduced total phosphorus (TP) loads to Harrow Run, a tributary to the Cohansey River. In addition, concentrations of nitrogen in the form of nitrite and nitrate (NO ₂ + NO ₃-N) in Harrow Run were found to have very little correlation to those discharged from the tailwater recovery system.