1.1. Gulf of Mexico Program (GMP)
The GMP was established in 1988 as an interagency
effort to improve ecological and economic
viability of the Gulf of Mexico. The Nutrient
Enrichment Committee of the GMP recognized
the potential importance of on-farm treatment
wetlands for reducing pollutants entering the Gulf
of Mexico watershed (much of the eastern and
central USA). Beginning in 1995, the GMP
funded a project to assess the effectiveness oftreatment wetlands for management of wastewaters
from concentrated animal operations and to
distribute the resulting assessment to the interested
public. This paper was sponsored by the
GMP and presented at a workshop on the use of
constructed wetlands for treatment of animal
wastes in Ft. Worth, TX, in May 1996. Papers
from that conference were never published, so this
condensed version of the paper is being published
here to disseminate information concerning the
database and detailed reports issued by the GMP
(CH2M HILL, 1997; CH2M HILL and Payne
Engineering, 1997; Payne and Knight, 1997).