Floating treatment wetlands can help keep our freshwater clean and healthy. Urbanization, waste treatment, landscape changes, agriculture, and natural resource extraction cause the runoff of nutrients, contaminants, petroleum products, and organic materials into freshwater lakes around the world.
Floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) or islands are small artificial platforms that allow aquatic plants to grow in water that is typically too deep for them. The unique ecosystem that develops creates the potential to capture nutrients and transform common pollutants that would otherwise plague and harm our lakes into harmless by-products.
