ISSN:
1745-6584
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
,
Geosciences
Notes:
The nature and extent of movement of ABS (alkylben-zenesulfonate) and other sewage components through natural soils were studied in the laboratory and in the field north of Denver, Colorado. Small amounts of ABS and bacteria pass through soils and reach the zone of saturation, where they move laterally down-gradient several thousand feet. Total dissolved solids show little fluctuation during such movement, possibly because extracted solutes are replaced by other solutes leached from the soils during water infiltration.In laboratory studies Denver sewage-plant effluent was filtered through packed columns of 8 types of soils. ABS was not significantly removed by most of the soils; how-ever, muck, greensand marl, and residual basalt soil ini-tially removed up to 94 percent of the ABS. Some ABS was removed only after development of bacterial slime on the soils; subsequent infiltration caused leaching of the slime and its adsorbed ABS and other constituents. All soils initially removed about 90 percent of the bacteria within a few feet of travel, but a small percentage passed through the soil. Bacterial clogging occurred quickly in the fine soils but only in modest amounts in the coarse sand, even after three months of flow.Field studies included analyses of river and irrigation water contaminated from a sewage-plant effluent, and well water from selected sites down-gradient between unlined irrigation ditches and the river. Concentrations of ABS and bacteria were significantly reduced during infiltration of irrigation ditch water to the water table. As noted in the laboratory the concentrations of both of these contaminants can be reduced through soil filtering action. In addition there may be some dilution of the infiltrate by the ground water. Dissolved solids showed practically no change between the ditches and the wells.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6584.1966.tb01585.x
