SASKATOON — A multi-group project installed floating treatment wetlands at Kensington's Storm Pond Wednesday, Aug. 28. The storm pond is located west of the city on Elk Point and beside the Confederation Park-Kensington neighbourhood.
FTWs are artificially built platforms, like tiny islands, to which aquatic plants can be attached to grow in bodies of water too deep for them. The roots of the plants spread through the FTWs and into the water, creating columns that give the plants a larger area to branch out.
Saskatchewan Association of Watersheds Water Resource Manager Samantha Kerr said the installation project is part of Water Stewardship for a Changing Climate program funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada.
"We're installing 12 floating treatment wetlands, so there are about 10 youth volunteers and four or five youth volunteers from WILD Outside, a Canadian Wildlife Federation program, and eight from [SAW]," said Kerr, an adjunct professor at the University of Regina.
The matting attached to FTWs allows elements, like sediment, to reduce movement caused by wind and waves. FTWs develop an ecosystem that can convert pollutants harmful to bodies of water into harmless byproducts.
The Water Security Agency, Meewasin Valley Authority, and the City of Saskatoon supported the project. To keep the vegetation in place, concrete blocks anchored the FTWs in the pond. The FTWs were installed one at a time.
Installing 12 FTWs demonstrates a procedure cities can adopt to keep their communities and neighbourhoods resilient to climate change and other extreme weather events. The FTWs expect to provide ecosystem services to the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Saskatchewan River Watershed.
The FTWs would reduce nutrient load, algae growth, and greenhouse gas emissions while providing habitat for wildlife and pollinators and improving water quality. SAW will test the stormwater pond annually in the next five years to track the FTWs' effect on water quality.
