During the last few years a new technology for treating municipal and industrial waste water has emerged, which also shows some potential for treatment of farm and home wastewaters. This technology involves the construction of artificial wetlands and establishing a dominant vegetation of Typha (cattails), Sphagnum (moss), certain algae, and other plant species which have the potential to beneficially affect small flows of waste water moving through them by biochemical processes. Interest in these systems has steadily increased because of their low cost (1/10 to 1/2 that of conventional treatment), efficiency, and near nonexistent maintenance. These constructed wetland biochemical-treatment systems appear to have such a great potential that over 200 experimental systems have already been established in the Appalachian region for acid mine drainage (AMO) and municipal water treatment. These systems are designed to mimic natural wetland ecosystems and their function in water purification
