Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - 3:00 PM
207-7
Impacts of a Swine Manure Spill on Fluvial Sediments: Evaluation of an alternative Manure Spill Remediation Method.
Shalamar Armstrong, Agronomy Department, Purdue University, Purdue University, 915 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2054, Douglas Smith, USDA-ARS National Soil Erosion Research Lab, USDA-ARS National Soil Erosion Research Lab, 275 S. Russell Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2077, Phillip Owens, Purdue University-Agronomy Dept., Purdue Univ., 915 W. State St, West Lafayette, IN 47907, Brad Joern, Dept of Agronomy Lilly Hall, Purdue University-Agronomy Dept., Purdue Univ., 915 W State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2054, and Chi-Hua Huang, USDA-ARS, National Soil Erosion Res. Lab, 275 S Russell St. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN 47907-2077.
Within the last decade the frequency of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) manure spills and violations have increased, in conjunction with the increase in the number of animal on each farm and production efficiency. Currently, the conventional remediation method for manure spills focus exclusively on isolating and removing nutrient contaminated water from the fluvial system. While, phosphorus (P) contaminated sediments remain in the fluvial system untreated and continue to impair the overlying water column through P desorption. Therefore, the goals of this study were to determine the P partitioning between fluvial sediments and the overlying water column following a manure spill and to evaluate the effectiveness of chemically amending contaminated fluvial sediments with a mixture of aluminum sulfate and calcium carbonate to reduce P desorption. A manure spill was simulated by packing ditch sediments into a stream simulator and circulating swine manure for 23 hr. Immediately after, the conventional remediation methods were simulated, three chemical treatments were applied to the exposed sediments, a control (untreated) and two rates of a 1:1 mixture of alum and calcium carbonate 0.5g per 250g of wet sediment and 1.0g per 250g of wet sediments. The average initial water soluble P concentration of the water column pre-spill was 0.02 mg P L-1 and immediately after the spill occurred the average increased to 3.80 mg P L-1. After implementing the conventional spill remediation methods untreated sediments desorbed an average of 0.158 mg P L-1 during a 24 hr desorption period. However, treating sediments with both rates of alum and calcium carbonate mitigated P desorption from the exposed sediments during a 24 hr. desorption period, with only a minute change in the water column pH. Results from this study suggest that alum and calcium carbonate have the potential to be an efficacious tool that can reduce P desorption following a manure spill.