Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 8:30 AM
327-1

Emission of Greenhouse Gases from Soils Applied with Wastewater.

Paramasivam Sivapatham, Bamidele Afolabi, Kimberly Williams, Terai Garner, Kenneth Sajwan, and Julius Afolabi. Savannah State Univ, 3219 College St, Savannah, GA 31404

The use of treated wastewater for irrigation has been recommended by the wastewater treatment plants around the world.  Treated wastewater contains significant amount of nutrients and dissolved carbon that could contribute to the increase in emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>),methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) and nitrous oxide (N<sub>2</sub>O) into the atmosphere. Therefore, evaluation of flux of various greenhouse gases from soils with treated wastewater is essential. Two soils with contrasting properties (Candler fine sand [CFS] from Florida, and Ogeechee loamy sand [OLS] from Savannah, GA) were amended with varying rates (7, 14, 25, 50, 75 and 100%) of two types of treated wastewater (industrial [ISS] and domestic [DSS] origin and incubated under anaerobic conditions in static chamber (Qopak bottles) for 25 days. Another companion set of soil samples were applied with similar rates of untreated wastewater and incubated for the same period to monitor the emission of greenhouse gases.  In this presentation, attention would be focused to elucidate the role of soil types, rates and types of wastewater and the role of acetylene on the emission of CO<sub>2</sub>, CH<sub>4</sub>, and N<sub>2</sub>O.