What can be done with the Saline Wastewater?

Presenter Information

Esmaiel Malek

Location

Space Dynamics Laboratory

Event Website

http://water.usu.edu/

Start Date

3-25-2004 2:40 PM

End Date

3-25-2004 3:00 PM

Description

Saline wastewater coming from the coal-fired power plants, owned and operated by PacifiCorp (Utah Power), has been applied at the Hunter and Huntington Research Farms in central Utah, U.S.A., since 1987, for irrigation of agricultural crops such as alfalfa, wheat, barley, etc. Researchers from Utah State University (USU), Brigham Young University (BYU), and PacifiCorp are involved in this multipurpose project. The primary goals of this research are to maximize crop production and evapotranspiration, to minimize runoff from the soil surface, to minimize leaching to the ground water, to determine the effect of salt accumulation on the transpiration of alfalfa and other forage crops, to create models of plant-soil-water-atmosphere interactions for use in predicting farm longevity and in determining the effects of farm management practices, to develop a data base for model validation, and to study the health hazards to the animals that consume the agricultural crops irrigated with saline wastewater. Only the first three goals are addresses in this report. We used the water balance approach, along with the continuous measurement of precipitation, irrigation (using the sprinkler system), and evapotranspiration (using the Bowen ratio system) to evaluate the annual and seasonal water balances of the alfalfa,, wheat, barley, and Hungarian brome fields irrigated with saline wastewater throughout the years (1987-2003). The results show that the soil moisture contents measured by neutron probe in the root zone and beyond are slightly lower at the end of the irrigation season compared to that measured in the beginning of the season. Also, the results indicate that by monitoring the amount of irrigation during the past 16 years, no surface runoff (which pollutes the fresh river water) or deep percolation (which pollutes the ground water) occurred. Also yield and evapotranspiration are likely to decrease only slightly for the coming years if saline wastewater is used for irrigation, and the meat products are safe for human consumption.

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Mar 25th, 2:40 PM Mar 25th, 3:00 PM

What can be done with the Saline Wastewater?

Space Dynamics Laboratory

Saline wastewater coming from the coal-fired power plants, owned and operated by PacifiCorp (Utah Power), has been applied at the Hunter and Huntington Research Farms in central Utah, U.S.A., since 1987, for irrigation of agricultural crops such as alfalfa, wheat, barley, etc. Researchers from Utah State University (USU), Brigham Young University (BYU), and PacifiCorp are involved in this multipurpose project. The primary goals of this research are to maximize crop production and evapotranspiration, to minimize runoff from the soil surface, to minimize leaching to the ground water, to determine the effect of salt accumulation on the transpiration of alfalfa and other forage crops, to create models of plant-soil-water-atmosphere interactions for use in predicting farm longevity and in determining the effects of farm management practices, to develop a data base for model validation, and to study the health hazards to the animals that consume the agricultural crops irrigated with saline wastewater. Only the first three goals are addresses in this report. We used the water balance approach, along with the continuous measurement of precipitation, irrigation (using the sprinkler system), and evapotranspiration (using the Bowen ratio system) to evaluate the annual and seasonal water balances of the alfalfa,, wheat, barley, and Hungarian brome fields irrigated with saline wastewater throughout the years (1987-2003). The results show that the soil moisture contents measured by neutron probe in the root zone and beyond are slightly lower at the end of the irrigation season compared to that measured in the beginning of the season. Also, the results indicate that by monitoring the amount of irrigation during the past 16 years, no surface runoff (which pollutes the fresh river water) or deep percolation (which pollutes the ground water) occurred. Also yield and evapotranspiration are likely to decrease only slightly for the coming years if saline wastewater is used for irrigation, and the meat products are safe for human consumption.

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2004/AllAbstracts/2