Treated Wastewater in Agriculture: Use and impacts on the soil environments and crops

Treated Wastewater in Agriculture: Use and impacts on the soil environments and crops

As the world's population increases and the demand for water increases apace there is a rising demand for information concerning the reuse of wastewater, particularly for the irrigation of key food crops worldwide. This important new book addresses in detail the use of treated wastewater in agricultural situations, its impact on crops and the soil environment. Coverage includes the composition and treatment of wastewater, health considerations, regulations and economic aspects. Major sections of the book also concentrate on crop management and the soil environment. This book is an essential purchase for all those working in irrigation, water management and crop production worldwide.
*Use of Treated Wastewater (TWW) for irrigation is increasingly important as the world's population increases
*Chapters prepared by leading scientists in the field
*Comprehensive coverage of current knowledge and advances in the area of TWW
*Focus on possible environmental impacts (positive and negative)

Contents

Preface.
Contributors list.
Part I GENERAL ASPECTS.
Chapter 1 Sources and composition of sewage effluent; treatment systems and methods (Renato Iannelli and David Giraldi).
1.1 Sources of usable wastewater.
1.1.1 Domestic and municipal wastewater.
1.1.2 Municipal, combined, and dedicated stormwater sewers.
1.1.3 Industrial wastewater.
1.2 Main characteristics of usable wastewater.
1.2.1 Potentially beneficial substances.
1.2.2 Harmful substances in sewage effluent.
1.2.3 Quantity considerations.
1.3 Wastewater treatments.
1.3.1 Classification of treatment stages.
1.3.2 Preliminary and primary treatments.
1.3.3 Secondary biological treatments.
1.3.4 Nutrient removal.
1.3.5 Disinfection.
1.3.6 Other tertiary chemico-physical treatments.
1.3.7 Membrane technologies and quaternary processes.
1.3.8 Natural treatments.
1.4 Framework for the selection of the optimal treatment train.
References.
Chapter 2 Health considerations in the recycling of water and use of treated wastewater in agriculture and other non-potable purposes (Hillel Shuval).
2.1 Introduction.
2.2 Rationale: why should society allow, regulate, and thus encourage exposure of the population to known health risks?
2.3 Persistence of pathogenic microorganisms in water, soil, and on crops from wastewater-irrigation.
2.4 Disease transmission by wastewater-irrigation.
2.4.1 Illness associated with wastewater-irrigation of crops eaten raw.
2.4.2 Cattle grazing on wastewater-irrigated pastures.
2.4.3 Exposure of wastewater farmers.
2.4.4 Exposure of residents in the vicinity of wastewater farms.
2.4.5 Epidemiological evidence of beneficial effects from wastewater treatment in reducing exposure to pathogens.
2.4.6 Critical review of epidemiological evidence of health effects of wastewater and excreta use in agriculture.
2.4.7 Conclusions from the analysis of the epidemiological studies.
2.5 Control of crops and irrigation methods to reduce health risks.
2.5.1 Regulating the type of crops.
2.5.2 Controlling irrigation methods.
2.6 Development of health standards and guidelines for wastewater use.
2.6.1 The importance of health guidelines and standards for reuse.
2.6.2 The USEPA/USAID initiative for wastewater use health guidelines.
2.6.3 Impact of highly restrictive reuse guidelines and standards.
2.6.4 The World Bank/WHO initiative to re-evaluate wastewater use guidelines.
2.6.5 Evaluating the WHO s health guidelines for wastewater reuse in agriculture.
2.6.6 WHO guidelines for monitoring and validation.
2.7 Conclusions.
References.
Chapter 3 Irrigation with recycled water: guidelines and regulations (Nikolaos V. Paranychianakis, Miquel Salgot and Andreas N. Angelakis).
Terminology definitions.
3.1 Introduction.
3.2 Historical development of water recycling and reuse regulations.
3.3 Water recycling in agriculture: quality issues.
3.3.1 Pathogens.
3.3.2 Biodegradable organic matter.
3.3.3 Total suspended solids.
3.3.4 Residual chlorine.
3.3.5 Toxic organic compounds.
3.3.6 Nutrients.
3.3.7 Salinity.
3.3.8 Trace elements.
3.4 Treatment requirements and TWW quality monitoring.
3.5 Water reuse criteria: irrigation of agricultural crops and landscapes.
3.5.1 World Health Organization.
3.5.2 USEPA guidelines.
3.5.3 California regulations (Title).
3.5.4 Florida.
3.5.5 Other states of America.
3.5.6 Canada.
3.5.7 Australian guidelines.
3.5.8 Europe.
3.5.9 Non-European Mediterranean countries.
3.6 Conclusions.
References.
Chapter 4 Economic aspects of irrigation with treated wastewater (Efrat Hadas and Yoav Kislev).
4.1 Introduction.
4.2 Wastewater in agriculture.
4.3 Wastewater and the regulation of its reuse.
4.4 Treatment.
4.5 Cost.
4.6 Replacement of fertilizers.
4.7 Cost allocation and prices.
4.7.1 The role of prices.
4.7.2 The model economy.
4.7.3 Prices.
4.7.4 Cost recovery.
4.8 Further considerations and alternatives.
4.8.1 Will the polluter pay?
4.8.2 Scarcity rents and extraction levies.
4.9 Agreements.
4.9.1 Nash bargaining solution.
4.9.2 Remarks.
4.10 The role of the government.
4.11 Concluding comments.
References.
Part II IMPACTS ON THE SOIL ENVIRONMENT AND CROPS.
Chapter 5 Major minerals.
5.1 Nitrogen in treated wastewater-irrigation (Asher Bar-Tal).
5.1.1 Introduction.
5.1.2 Nitrogen transformations.
5.1.2.1 Mineralization and immobilization.
5.1.2.2 Ammonium and ammonia reactions.
5.1.2.3 Nitrification.
5.1.2.4 Denitrification.
5.1.3 TWW-N availability to plants.
5.1.4 TWW-N leaching and environmental pollution.
5.1.5 Modeling TWW-N fate.
5.1.6 Conclusions.
References.
5.2 Phosphorus (Bnayahu Bar-Yosef).
5.2.1 Introduction.
5.2.2 Phosphorus forms and species in effluents.
5.2.3 Sorption, transport and transformations of effluent P in soil.
5.2.3.1 Inorganic P.
5.2.3.2 Organic P.
5.2.3.3 Transport.
5.2.4 Treated wastewater irrigation.
5.2.4.1 Phosphorus application versus consumption rate.
5.2.4.2 Phosphorus losses from wastewater-irrigated soils.
5.2.5 Case studies.
5.2.5.1 Long-term studies with a single soil.
5.2.5.2 Long term wastewater irrigation survey.
5.2.6 Conclusions and outlook.
References.
5.3 Calcium and carbonate (Gil Eshel and Michael J. Singer).
5.3.1 Introduction.
5.3.2 Sources and distribution.
5.3.3 Carbonate system in the soil environment.
5.3.3.1 Soil pCO2.
5.3.3.2 Soil pH.
5.3.3.3 Stable isotopes.
5.3.4 The effect of irrigation on soil carbonate.
5.3.5 Environmental aspects.
5.3.6 Summary.
References.
Chapter 6 Toxic elements.
6.1 Boron (Uri Yermiyahu, Alon Ben-Gal and Rami Keren).
6.1.1 Introduction.
6.1.2 Boron in TWW.
6.1.3 Boron chemistry in aqueous media.
6.1.4 Boron soil interactions.
6.1.4.1 Solution B adsorption processes.
6.1.4.2 Boron salinity interactions.
6.1.4.3 Leaching B from soils.
6.1.5 Boron crop interactions.
6.1.5.1 Plant function and B nutrition.
6.1.5.2 Excess B and toxicity.
6.1.5.3 Boron Salinity interactions in plants.
6.1.6 Irrigation with TWW containing high B levels: a case study.
References.
6.2 Chlorides in treated wastewater and their effects on plants (Uzi Kafkafi).
6.2.1 Introduction.
6.2.2 Chloride in plants.
6.2.2.1 Deficiency.
6.2.2.2 Sufficiency.
6.2.2.3 Toxicity.
6.2.3 Absorption mechanisms of chloride by plant roots.
6.2.4. Effects of irrigation with TWW containing high Cl concentrations on crops.
6.2.4.1 Hazards of long-term irrigation with recycled effluents.
6.2.5 Foliar damage by Cl in sprinkler irrigated TWW.
6.2.6 Concluding comments.
References.
Chapter 7 Heavy metals in soils irrigated with wastewater (Amir Hass, Uri Mingelgrin and Pinchas Fine).
List of acronyms.
7.1 Introduction.
7.2 Heavy metals in effluents.
7.3 Organic matter: composition in wastewater effluents and behavior in soil.
7.4 Attenuation of heavy metals in soils irrigated with effluents.
7.5 Loading limits of metals.
7.6 Metals: interaction with soil components.
7.7 Distribution of metals among the soil s solid fractions.
7.8 The stability, pH and Eh of free oxides, and their effect on the geochemical distribution of metals.
7.9 Heavy metal solubility and speciation in the soil solution.
7.10 Mobility of heavy metals in the soil profile.
7.11 Availability to plants.
7.12 Summary and conclusions.
References.
Chapter 8 Salinity (Nico E. Marcar, Tivi Theiveyanathan and Daryl P. Stevens)
8.1 The nature of salinity.
8.2 Measuring salinity.
8.2.1 Water salinity.
8.2.2 Soil salinity.
8.3 Mechanism of soil salinisation.
8.4 Salinity in wastewater.
8.4.1 Chemical characterization of treated wastewater.
8.4.2 Managing salinity in TWW.
8.5 Effects of salinity on plant growth and water use.
8.5.1 Physiological growth responses.
8.5.2 Growth responses to saline water irrigation.
8.6 Water use.
8.6.1 Irrigation with saline water.
8.6.2 Irrigation scheduling.
8.6.3 Managing saline drainage water from irrigation of recycled water.
8.7 Managing root-zone salinity.
8.7.1 Field evidence.
8.7.2 Leaching fractions.
8.7.3 Modeling predictions.
8.8 Summary and conclusions.
References.
Chapter 9 Physical aspects (Guy J. Levy and Shmuel Assouline).
9.1 Introduction.
9.2 Soil structural stability.
9.3 Soil hydraulic properties.
9.3.1 Water retention curve.
9.3.2 Hydraulic conductivity (saturated and unsaturated).
9.4 Soil surface sealing, infiltration and runoff.
9.5 Soil erosion.
9.6 Water repellency.
9.7 Concluding comments.
References.
Chapter 10 Fouling in microirrigation systems applying treated wastewater effluents (Carlos G. Dosoretz, Jorge Tarchitzky, Ilan Katz, Elisha Kenig and Yona Chen).
10.1 Introduction.
10.2 Quality of treated effluents as a source of irrigation water.
10.3 Emitter clogging in relation to irrigation water quality.
10.3.1 Suspended material.
10.3.2 Chemical deposition.
10.3.3 Biological deposition.
10.3.4 Biofouling.
10.4 Management of emitter clogging.
10.4.1 Filtration of particulate material.
10.4.2 Biofouling control.
10.4.3 Control of chemical and biological deposition.
10.4.4 Flushing of the irrigation line.
10.5 Recovery of clogged emitters.
10.6 Concluding remarks and future prospects.
References.
Chapter 11 Effects of treated municipal wastewater irrigation on soil microbiology (Dror Minz, Rachel Karyo and Zev Gerstl).
11.1 Introduction.
11.2 Soil microbial ecology and activities.
11.2.1 Nitrogen fixation.
11.2.2 Denitrification.
11.2.3 Organic matter.
11.2.4 Pesticides.
11.2.5 Pharmaceuticals.
11.2.6 Heavy metals.
11.2.7 pH.
11.2.8 Salinity.
11.2.9 Boron.
11.3 Human pathogens.
11.4 Summary and conclusions.
References.
Chapter 12 Impact of irrigation with treated wastewater on pesticides and other organic microcontaminants in soils (Zev Gerstl and Ellen R. Graber).
12.1 Introduction.
12.2 The effect of DOM on the chemical behavior of organic xenobiotics.
12.2.1 DOM binding with xenobiotic organic chemicals (XOCs).
12.2.2 Binding constant DOM relationships.
12.2.3 Effect of DOM on sorption and transport of XOCs.
12.3 Effluent-borne organic contaminants.
12.4 Summary and conclusions.
References.
Chapter 13 Organic matter in wastewater and treated wastewaterirrigated soils: properties and effects (Yona Chen, Carlos G. Dosoretz, Ilan Katz, Elizabeth Jueschke, Bernd Marschner and Jorge Tarchitzky).
13.1 Introduction.
13.2 Organic matter in wastewater.
13.2.1 Particle-size distribution.
13.2.2 Chemical composition.
13.3 Soil organic matter (SOM).
13.4 The influence of treated-wastewater-borne organic matter on soil organic matter.
13.5 The influence of treated-wastewater-borne organic matter on soil properties.
13.6 Concluding remarks.
References.
Chapter 14 Analysis of transport of mixed Na/Ca salts in a three-dimensional heterogeneous variably saturated soil (David Russo).
14.1 Introduction.
14.2 Modeling of transport of mixed Na/Ca salts in spatially heterogeneous, variably saturated soils.
14.2.1 The coupling-interaction parameters.
14.2.2 The governing partial differential equations.
14.2.3 Characterization of the flow and transport parameters.
14.3 Simulation of transport of mixed Na/Ca salts in spatially heterogeneous, variably saturated soils.
14.3.1 Results of the transport simulation of Russo et al. (2004).
14.3.2 Discussion of the results of the transport simulation of Russo et al. (2004).
14.4 Summary and concluding remarks.
References.
Index.