Detention Ponds for Agricultural Drain water Treatment And Adaptation to Egyptian Conditions

A Z Awad 1

Abstract: Detention ponds system may contribute to improve agricultural drainage water quality before entering into fresh surface waterways. The main principle of the treatment process is to capture naturally substances commonly considered to be pollutants. These include nutrients, toxicants and pathogenic bacteria and viruses. Pradikow, Heinersdorf, Dunnewiese ponds have been planned in 2005 as research sites for agricultural drainage water treatment in Germany. The three ponds have been created by the institute of Landscape Hydrology at Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Germany under the EU-water frame work directive (WFD) principles in order to: - Analyze and verify the impacts of the ponds on the agricultural drainage water quality parameters. - Select potential design criteria of the detention ponds in the small water sheds. - Steer the planning and the installation of the pilot work. - Investigate the treatment processes. - Generalize the expertise of location selection, design and operation measures to other Locations in Germany where such ponds are appropriate. - Provide a decision support for the design criteria and the operation of the system. Finally a summary of conclusions and useful recommendations concerned the Detention ponds systems are highlighted.

Key words: ZALF, WFD, DSS

Assistant Professor, Irrigation and Hydraulics Department, Faculty of Engineering Ain Shams University.

Introduction: Detention ponds system may contribute to improve agricultural drainage water quality before entering into fresh surface waterways. The main principle of the treatment process is to capture naturally substances commonly considered to be pollutants. These include nutrients, toxicants and pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The main objectives of this paper are to: 1. Investigate and study the research project of three detention ponds at ZALF including: - The structural design of different ponds elements. - The vegetation as a primary portion in the purification processes. - The mechanism of the treatment processes. - Different methods and devices used in ZALF to evaluate the three ponds performance. 2. Study different required measures in order to get the ponds applicable in Egypt with respect to water quantity losses, water salinity, DSS and institutional setting. Structural design of the ponds elements: Conditions that should be evaluated when designing a pond include climate, geography, groundwater, soils and geology, rainfall and runoff water and environmental impacts. The amount and timing of the water that passes through the pond is the first item in the design plan. The concentrations of the pollutants in the water flowing into the pond are critical to the size of the pond and to predict its removal performance. In the following different characteristics of three ponds ( Pradikow, Dunne Wiese, Heinsdorf). The ponds were created either in natural depression such as Dunne Wiese and Heinersdorf or by constructing embankments around the area planned to trap the water such as Pradikow. Inlet structure: The ponds inlet structures have been designed to minimize the velocity of the water entering the pond. Turbulence can mix the pond water and resuspend sediments and pollutants. The water comes to the ponds through either a subsurface pipe such as prdikow and Dnne Wiese or a ditch such as Heinersdorf. Velocity of water slows down and the areas following the inlet structures serve as the first sedimentation part for coarse solid particles of the incoming water. A rainfall gauge has been installed at the inlet weir of Dnne Wiese pond to measure the volume of the rainfall. After the inlet structure is constructed and installed in the pond, a data logger is installed inside a pipe closed to the upstream of the inlet structure.

The main function of that data logger is to collect the water temperatures and levels hourly. The lower end of the data logger reaches the water by a temperature sensor to measure the water temperature and pressure sensor to measure the water pressure. The pressure of the water is transformed afterwards to water height (H) and the water discharge is calculated by the weir equation Q = a * H^ b. Connecting the data logger which is already installed inside a pipe with the data logger controller to take the data. The main functions of the data logger controller: - to program the date logger inside the pipe to measure the data on regular times, i.e. daily, weekly or monthly. - to collect the data and transform these data to the computer to be analyzed. Outlet structure: The outlet structure controls the rate of discharge from the pond. Pond outlet design is important in avoiding potential dead zones, in controlling water level, for avoiding blocking and for monitoring flow and water quality. Outlet structures are sensitive to accumulation of debris, so final filtering of algae biomass ha been included to prevent the logging. Calibration method to estimate the equations of the weirs used in the three ponds: The calibration method has been used at ZALF-Institute of Landscape Hydrology to derive the equations of the inflow and outflow weirs that have been manufactured at the institute. There are five weirs used, four of them are the same size and the same equation. The following steps that have been done to estimate the weirs equation: - Changing the water level (H) several times after setting the manufactured weir in the flow flume in the hydrology lab. - For each level, the water volume (V) is determined eight times taking into consideration that the time to measure each water volume (t) is constant. - Determining the eight water discharger for the eight water volumes by dividing each water volume (V) by the time (t) which was constant. - Determining the (Q measured) are known, the equation of the weir is determined using the regression method. The pervious steps were to estimate the equation of the weir (1) installed at the location of one Prdikw inflow. Similarly, the equation of the weirs (2, 3, 4 and 5) has been estimated. The equation of the four weirs is similar because the weirs are the same size. They are used at the inflow and the outflow of Dnne Wiese pond, the other inflow of Prdikw pond and the outflow of Henersdorf pond. Prdikw outflow weir has not been manufactured at ZALF and the equation was known. Design of the detention ponds embankments: General design of the detention ponds embankments: Embankments design is based on hydraulic and geotechnical considerations. The purpose of embankments is to regulate and contain water within specific flow paths. Detention pond embankments should be providing an adequate freeboard to prevent flow releases. Embankment freeboards should be sufficiently adequate to prevent overtopping during storm events. Embankment freeboards should also consider berm soil consolidation.

Since the main purpose of the project is to generalize the expertise to other locations, it is important to set design tables showing the different characteristics for all soils types, embankments' dimensions for each soil type with different heights and checks of safety for each soil type. By using these tables that have been created through this master thesis and proved at ZALF-institute of Landscape Hydrology, the dimensions of any pond embankments can be chosen directly after just determining the soil type and the water level. All the soils and all the water levels are included in these tables. Creating these tables was based on many literatures. Both check of overturning and check of slope stability are not included in the tables and they have to be checked. The height of the embankment = the height of the water level in any pond + the freeboard. Assumption: 123H=H max = the top level of the outflow weir Freeboard =0.20 - 0.50 m Upper embankment width = k = 2.0 m

The required main characteristics of different soils for the embankments design: There are many soils characteristics that are needed for the design of the embankments. The main characteristics for different soil that might be needed are: The soil density, the friction angle and the shear resistance. They have been collected from DIN 1055. Part2. The static factor and consolidation ratio have been collected from (Werner, 1969) Table 1 : Specific weight, the friction angle, the slope, the shear resistance, static factor and consolidation ratio for different types of soil. Soil Weight KN/m3 Y 18 19 18 19 11 Fiction angle 32.5 35 27.5 20 15 Slope S 3:2 3:4 1:1 1:1 1:1 Shear Resistance KN/m2 Cu 0 0 30 75 20 Static Factor K 0.45 0.50 0.60 0.75 0.75 Consolidation Ratio % P 5.00 5.00 7.50 10.00 6.00

Sand Mix Silt Clay Peat

The minimum width and the for different soils heights:

embankment bearing capacity and different

Figure (1): Min embankment width Bearing Capacity for different soils and different heights can be calculated according to DIN 154 depending on minimum embankment width. Min embankment width = 2+2 x S x H S = slope, from (table 3.2) Table (2): The bearing capacity for different heights and embankment widths for different soils. Min embankment width Height of the embankment (m) Sand 3.50 5.00 6.20 8.00 9.50 11.0 0 12.5 0 14.0 0 Mix 2.75 3.50 4.25 5.00 5.75 6.50 7.25 8.00 Lehm 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Clay 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Peat 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Sand 198 144 144 144 144 144 144 144 Bearing capacity KN/m2 Mix 220 220 220 220 220 220 220 220 Silt 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 170 Clay 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 Peat 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 (m)

The vertical stress on the embankment bottom: The value of the vertical stress should be always less than the bearing capacity shown in the pervious table. The vertical stresses on the embankment bottom = specific weight (t) x height of the embankment (H d), after (Werner, 1969). Figure (2): The vertical shear stresses on the embankment

The value of the vertical stress should be always less than the bearing capacity shown in the pervious table. The vertical stresses on the embankment bottom = specific weight (t) x height of the embankment (H d), after (Werner, 1969). Consolidation ratio (table 3.2). Table (3): the vertical stresses on the embankment bottom Height of the embankment Hd 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 Vertical Stress on the embankment bottom Sand Mix Slit Clay Peat 9 9.50 9 9.50 5.50 18 19.00 18 19.00 11.00 27 28.50 27 27.00 16.50 36 38.00 36 36.00 22.00 45 47.50 45 47.50 27.50 54 57.00 54 57.00 33.00 63 66.50 63 66.50 38.50 72 76.00 72 44.00 44.00

Friction resistance for different soils and different heights:

 for sand and mixed soils, friction resistance =Tmax = (G+Wv) tan which G = the weight of the embankment = Y (2 x H + 0.5 x S x H2) Wv = the weight of the water above the embankment bottom = Yw x 0.5 x S H2) = Friction angle (table 4.2) for cohesive soils such as clay, silt, Peat, Tmax = Cu x 1 Cu = shear resistance (table 3.2) Tmax should be less than Fh Fh =the horizontal water stress = Yw x g x h2/2 Figure (3): The friction resistance Tmax.

The shear stresses taking consolidation into consideration: The shear stress on the bottom area of the embankment = = 3E0 / (K+2 x S x h), after (Werner, 1969). E0 = static pressure = K0 x h2 x Y/2 K0 = static pressure Factor ( table 3.2) Dh = consolidation or settlement height =P x h , after ( Werner, 1996)

Figure (4): The shear on the embankment bottom. P = the consolidation ratio (table 3.2) The increase of the value of the shear stress due to this settlement by this equation: D / = 1+ (Wn x G/0.434 x Cc) x (Dh/h), after (Werner 1996) Wn = thenatureal moisture = 30 70 % G = the specific gravity = 2.7 Cc = the compression index = 0.93 Wn, after (Werner, 1996) Figure (5): The consolidation height. Pond size:

A good relative size of the wetland is a precondition for planning. The size of the ponds depends also on the water quantity coming from the subsurface drainage or the surface drainage system. Pradikow detention pond has been designed to contain a maximum water level depth of 0.82 m. However, it is permissible for the water level to drop below the maximum depth during extended dry periods. Vegetation: Planting: Planting in the three ponds is not required because natural vegetation establishment can be relied upon except on Pradikow where there is vegetation that has been planted on the embankments in order to: - Provide stabilization. - Provide frictional resistance to waves. - Bind the soil within its roots. Vegetation types and intensities: The water continues to a shallow area through a dense vegetation zone, which has been formed of natural vegetation. Several forms of vegetations in the three ponds are desirable, since they are a form of physical habitat; they provide diversity of food sources and consequently increase diversity of aquatic organism. The vegetation in the three ponds has a sufficient density high enough to be productive and capable of retaining organic material and it is not so dense that it inhibits water circulation. Vegetation biomass analysis: Both the vegetation density and the concentrations of different contaminants captured by the vegetation are calculated by taking the vegetation biomass in 1 m2 at different locations in three ponds three times a year: - In the beginning of the vegetation period. - The maximum point in the summer. - In the end of the vegetation period. Then this biomass is dried in the lab and weighted to know how much the vegetation density is. The analysis of vegetation biomass taken is being done by the central lab. - Recommendations to get the detention ponds system applicable in Egypt: Water scarcity in Egypt and the agricultural increasing demand: Egypt covers a very arid region situated between the Sahara and Arabian deserts. Egypt is extremely dependent on the River Nile. The country hardly has any other fresh water resources. Rainfall is very rare, except for a very small strip along the coast of the Mediterranean. Fossil groundwater is available is parts of the Western and Eastern Deserts and the Sinai. The gross water use in the mid-1990s was about 60 300 Million m3 per year, of which 51 500 million m3 or 85 percent was extracted for irrigation purposes. The Ministry of Water

Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) expects irrigation demand to increase to 61 500 million m3 per year by 2025(DRI). The projected total water demand cannot be met by developing new water resources. Figure 5.1 shows the existing agricultural areas colored by green and the potential areas by 2017 colored by red. The agricultural drainage water reuse for irrigation in Egypt: The drainage water flowing from the Delta to the sea represents part of the irrigation water that is in excess of crop evapotranspiration in addition to canal tail water losses. The drainage water from agriculture is collected and transported by an extensive drainage network. The drainage system is largely by gravity flow, except for a number of pumping stations in the Northern Delta. Agricultural drainage water is readily available to farmers who suffer shortages of fresh water supplies. The drains are located at the tail ends of irrigation canals. Drainage water offers to the farmer a more reliable water supply independent of the regular irrigation water rotations. To cope with increasing shortage of irrigation water, reuse pumping stations pump drainage water into irrigation canals where it mixes with fresh water for further downstream use. Various reuse pumping stations in the Nile Delta and Fayoum convey drainage water back into the irrigation canal system and the Nile River. In the 1980s, the reuse of agricultural drainage water became a policy to augment Egypt's limited fixed freshwater resources and to close the gap between supply and demand. The present water management system strongly depends on the reuse of drainage water. Currently about 5.5 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) of drainage water are being reused after mixing with fresh water. This amount is expected to increase up to 9.5 BCM by the year 2017. The impacts of the water quality deterioration on the drainage water reuse quantity: Although reuse of water in the downstream part of the system is considered very effective to reduce the losses, possible negative impacts should be considered. When poor and good quality water is mixed, this may affect possible downstream users, other than agriculture. A major problem experienced is the deteriorating water quality in many drains that are polluted. Mixing of this water with canal water in a number of cases threatened other water users that are located downstream of the mixing points. For this reason a number of main drain reuse stations had to be closed in the past as shown in (figure 5.6). To bring these pumping stations into operation again, large efforts to reduce the pollution loads would be necessary. Therefore, alternatives for this type of reuse have to be found. Increased reuse of drainage water obviously also requires that pollution levels in the drainage water are controlled. The preferred Egyptian conditions for detention ponds: The detention ponds are more appropriate for the agricultural drainage water treatment in Egypt for many reasons:

1The warm climate in Egypt is more favorable for the detention ponds performance for many reasons: - High temperature improves the purification performance as has been proved in many studies such as (Gonzalez-Davila et al., 1995), (Mautsoe and Beckett, 1996), (Gonzalez-Davila et al., 1995), (Mautsoe and Beckett, 1996), (Marchner, 1995; Mautsoe and Beckett, 1996), (Marschner, 1995) and (Fritioff, 2001). - In warm climates, the vegetation growth process is complete within one growing season; but for cold climate two or more seasons may be required. - All plant species are suitable for warm climate but for cold temperature there are some species that die below the water line. - At low temperatures, nutrients' removal of 50% - 70% is difficult to achieve. At higher temperature, with well designed ponds, nutrients' removal could be more than 70% ( Hillbricht , 1999). 2Detention ponds are attractive to communities with limited budgets as they are low-cost (usually least-cost), natural (low tech/no-tech), low-maintenance which means that these systems are relatively easy to construct and operate. 3The only energy required is direct solar energy which is available in Egypt most of the year. 4The highly significance of the agricultural drainage water purification in Egypt which is reused more than once. Drainage water reuse is the most promising and economically attractive option to make more water available for agriculture. As mentioned in (section 5.1), Since the agricultural use in Egypt is about 85% form all the water use, agricultural drainage water is considered the most important. Increased reuse of drainage water obviously also requires that pollution levels in the drainage water are controlled, especially that the water quality deterioration limits the drainage water reuse quantity. Hence agricultural drainage water purification is necessary. 5It is essential for the long-term sustainability that simple efficient technologies such as detention ponds are always considered. 6Although the potential positive results of the drainage water treatment are less in the detention ponds than in the conventional waste water treatment methods in terms of water quality, but the measure of the detention ponds could be easily chosen in Egypt for many reasons: I. Due to determining the certain functions of the waterway (drinking, swimming, irrigation, drainage, fishing, navigation, etc.), the policy of the reuse of drainage water in Egypt is to pump the drainage water to the locations where there is no drinking water intakes in the downstream. II. The agricultural drainage water is less polluted than the domestic and industrial drainage water.

10

Therefore the detention ponds could be applicable in Egypt to improve the agricultural drainage water coming from the field drains (subsurface drains or open drains) before entering the collector drains. Conclusion and recommendations: 1- The nutrients retention ranges for N and P from 2 to 99% depending on physical (inflow quantity, water velocity, water depth, pond size, temperature, etc) chemical (sorption properties of sediments, ph; etc) and biological (type and intensity of vegetation) characteristics. 2- The key factor of the purification processes is, beside temperature, matters loads etc, the detention time, and in detail the reaction time for chemical and biological processes. 3- From measuring and analyzing different parameters, it can be concluded that: -All the soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), iron (Fe) and ammonium-nitrogen (NH4N) loads are completely concentrated in the bottom soil of the three ponds and no loads are found along the water column. - The nitrate-nitrogen (No3-N) load is completely concentrated in the water of the three ponds and no load is found in the soil bottom. - The loads of the sulfate (SO4) and the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and the values of the red ox potential (E0) are equal along the soil and water column. 4- The water quantity losses range from 0 to 1.5 l/s (Q inflow Q outflow) in the three ponds without taking rainfall amount into consideration. 5- From the general design tables of the bond embankments for all soil types and different water levels, it can be concluded that: - By using these tables, the pond embankments design for any pond, whatever the soil type or the water level is, can be easily chosen. - In case of silt and peat, the height of the embankment by any way should not be greater than 2.5 m, because after this value the water force (Fh) is greater than the friction resistance (T max). - Both check of overturning and check of slope stability of the pond embankment are not included in the design tables. 6- Dense and extensive wetland vegetation will act slow water velocity, to force water to flow through a longer course, and act to retain it longer in the basin and subsequently enhance the treatment processes. 7- The planned increasing amount of the reused drainage water from 5.5 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) recently up to 9.6 BCM by the year 2017 in Egypt leads subsequently to more potential water quality deterioration, water salinity problems. The only solution to face these problems is to purify this drainage water before the reuse. 8- From the preliminary investigations of the Egypt conditions impacts on the detention ponds, it can be concluded that the warm climate would improve the purification

11

performance, increase the nutrients removal to be more than 70%, increase the vegetation growth, and enable all plant species to grow. But the water losses would be very high within the pond. 9- The ponds would be sustainable solution for drainage water treatment in Egypt for being low-cost, natural, low- maintenance and the only energy required is direct solar energy which is available most of the year. References: ARHEIMER, B.; WITTGERN , H.B. (1994): modeling the effects of wetlands on regional nitrogen transport. Ambio 23(6):378-386. DRURY, C.F.; TANNER, C. S.; GAYNOR, J. D.; OLOYA, T. O.; WELACKY, T. W. (1996): influence of controlled drainage-sub-irrigation on surface and tile drainage nitrate loss. J. Environ. Qual. 25: 317-324. FAQ, agriculture Department, Agricultural Drainage water management in Arid and SemiArid Areas(1997). FAUSEY, N.R.; BROWN, L. C.; BELCHER, H.W; KANWAR, R. S. (1995): Drainage and water quality in Great lakes and Cornblet states. J. Irrig. Drain. Eng. 121:283-288. HILLBRICHT-ILKOWSKA.A. (1999): Shallow lakes in lowland river systems: Role in transport and transformations of nutrients and in biological diversity. Hydrobiologia 409: 349358. Mahmoud Abu-zeid, Water Research Center(WRC), Cairo (Egypt), Major Policies and programs for Irrigation Drainage and Water Resources Development in Egypt. National Water Resources Plan for Egypt, Facing the Challenge, Cairo, May, 2003. SAND-JENSEN, K. (1998): Influence of submerged macrophytes on sediment composition and near-bed flow in lowland streams. Freshwater biology 39 (4):663-679. UUSI-KMPP, J.; BRASKERUD, B.; JANSSON, H.; SYVERSEN, N.; UUSITALO, R. (2000): bufferzones and constructed wetlands as filters for agricultural phosphorus. Journal of environmental quality 29 (1): 151-158. XUE, Y.; DAVID, M.B; GENTRY, L.E.; KOVACIC, D.A. (1998) kinetics and modeling of dissolved phosphorus export from a tile-drained agricultural watershed. J. environ. Qual. 27: 1009-1017.

12