Welcome to the Wetlands!
The Wetlands at Long’s Park, completed in 2023, is an innovative water treatment system that is intended to improve the health, habitat value, and appearance of Long’s Pond. The system will also help improve the water quality in the Little Conestoga Creek, which flows into the Lower Susquehanna River, and will improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay. The project features a man-made natural treatment system or “treatment train” that includes a forebay with floating wetland islands, an iron-enhanced media filter, and two wetland marshes, which ultimately discharge to Long’s Pond.
The “treatment train” captures and treats water that it receives from one of two sources: 1) stormwater runoff from portions of nearby Route 30 and Long’s Park and 2) water that is continuously pumped from Long’s Pond. After entering the system, water is stored in the forebay, which is a small “pool” designed to trap larger materials and sediment carried by stormwater. Floating wetland islands in the forebay filter this dirtier water and remove excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which can be harmful to aquatic plants and wildlife (plants and wildlife that grow and live in water). As the water reaches a certain level, it then flows into the iron-enhanced media filter (gravel mixed with very small pieces of iron) to further reduce phosphorus. After flowing through the media filter, the water will drain through two wetland marshes with shallow and deep zones to provide further removal of sediment, phosphorous, and nitrogen.
Plants and microorganisms play a very important role in the water treatment system. Aquatic plants soak up nitrogen and phosphorus from the water in the pond. Photosynthesis is the process in which plants absorb energy from the sun and use nutrients in the water to grow and release oxygen. This oxygen supports land and aquatic wildlife, and some is even used by microorganisms to reduce more pollutants in the water.
