Project Number: WVA00380
CRIS Number: 0169710
ENVIRONMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE OF METALS IN WEST VIRGINIA SOILS
Investigators: Sencindiver, J. C., Bhumbla, D. K.
Performing Department: Plant & Soil Sciences -- 1825
Start Date: 10/01/1995
Termination Date: 09/30/2004
Reporting period: 01/01/2001 to 12/31/2001
Progress Report:
Revegetation plots were established in 1991 on a surface coal mine in northern West Virginia. These plots were treated with a factorial combination of three rates of fly ash (FA) and three rates of sewage sludge (SS). Rates of FA were 0, 282, and 564 Mg per ha, and rates of SS were 0, 35, and 70 Mg per ha. Each treatment was replicated four times. Minesoils were sampled and analyzed annually from 1991 to 1995, and the last samples were collected and analyzed in 2001. The samples were analyzed for total and plant-available trace elements (Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn, Co, Mn, Fe). Plant-available concentrations of trace elements increased with application of sewage sludge. Concentrations of Pb, Cr, Cu, Co, and Zn were higher in soils receiving FA than in untreated soils. However, FA significantly lowered the concentrations of both Fe and Mn. In soils with combinations of FA and SS, FA reduced the concentrations of plant-available trace elements below the concentrations found in soils treated only with SS. There was a steep decline in soil organic carbon content in the SS treatments after the first year of the experiment, but no significant difference in metal availability was observed in 2001.
Publications:
Bhumbla, D.K., B.S. Sekhon, and K. Sajwan. 2001. Trace element bioavailablilty in mine soils treated with sewage sludge and fly ash mixtures. Extended Abstract. In Proc. Sixth International Conference on the Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements. International Society of Trace Element Biogeochemistry. July 29-August 2, 2001. University of Guelph. Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Impact:
Data from this study will be used to develop environmentally safe application rates of sewage sludge and fly ash for revegetation of mined lands.