Period Covered by the Report: May 1, 2003 - July 31, 2003
Date of Report: Sept. 1, 2003
EPA Agreement Number:
Title: A Continuation of Remediation of Brine Spills with Hay
Investigators: Laura P. Ford and Kerry L. Sublette
Institution: University of Tulsa
Research Category:
Project Period: May 1, 2003 - April 30, 2004
Samples were taken and analyzed in May 2003 and July 2003. The sites were retreated with fertilizer and hay, where appropriate, on July 29, 2003. Tanks, a pump, and water sprinklers have been arranged so that the sites could be watered when the rain was below average. A dual-ring infiltrometer is now being used for soil hydraulic conductivity measurements.
Results to date indicate that fertilizer may be the best treatment for reducing the concentrations of sodium and chloride. Hay has no discernible effect on the cation exchange capacity or the wet aggregate stability.
|
Reductions in sodium and chloride inventories, June 2001 to July 2003 |
|||
|
Plot |
Treatment |
Sodium |
Chloride |
|
|
|
%age drop |
%age drop |
|
G7-2 |
T |
39 |
57 |
|
G9-4 |
T |
21 |
18 |
|
G7-1 |
TH |
34 |
49 |
|
G9-2 |
TH |
11 |
48 |
|
G7-4 |
TF |
61 |
74 |
|
G9-3 |
TF |
64 |
73 |
|
G7-3 |
THF |
54 |
75 |
|
G9-1 |
THF |
21 |
15 |
The ground was really hard at the July sampling (before we had watered any), and it was difficult to get the infiltrometer in place for measurements. This was also our first field use of the instrument. For G9-4, the level dropped for the outer ring but it never dropped for the inner ring; maybe the rings were not placed properly. For GC-3, we had to pick a wet spot because rest of the plot was too hard to push the infiltrometer into the ground. We did not do the test on any of the Gibbs 7 plots, since these would have been last and we felt we had not done good readings in the previous tests. The last two plots were treated with tilling and hay, and the limited data indicate that maybe the plots that received tilling and hay have higher infiltration rates.