Transport of some elements to depth of a soil following irrigation with raw and treated municipal wastewaters under continuous and intermittent flood conditions

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• A. Hosseinipour ¹
• Gh. Haghnia ¹
• A. Alizadeh ²
• A. Fotovat ³

¹ College of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

² Professor in Water Resources Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

³ Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

10.22067/jsw.v0i22.1010

Abstract

Abstract
Due to the necessity of wastewater reuse in arid regions and the necessity of investigation on the fate of added materials into the soil, a greenhouse experiment was carried out with polyethylene columns (150 cm in length and 11 cm in diameter) filled with a sandy loam soil during 7 periods of 15 days. A statistical factorial design was used. Raw and treated wastewaters from Parkandabad treatment plant were applied to the columns under continuous and intermittent flood irrigations. The results showed that PO4-P and Cd were retained by the soil while a large portion of soluble cations and anions, NO3-N and TOC as well as a part of Ni were leached out. The type of wastewater had a significant effect on transport percentage of elements except K and Mg. The transport percentage of all elements (with the exception of NO3-N and PO4-P) was higher for treated as compared to raw wastewater. Ca, HCO3 and Ni were significantly affected by the mode of application. For the intermittent flood conditions more Ca was leached out, while a reverse case was observed for the other two elements. Due to relatively rapid leaching of soluble cations especially Ca and Mg, NO3-N and TOC from the soil, and also high amount of heavy metals and TOC in raw wastewater, disposal of wastewaters (especially raw wastewater) should be managed carefully.

Key words: Column study, Raw and treated wastewater, Continuous flooding, Intermittent flooding,Transport perecentage

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