Start Date: 10-2000
End Year: 2005
Objectives:
Leaders:
M.B. McBride, W.S. Reid, E. Harrison, S. DeGloria, J. Duxbury,T.
S. Steenhuis
Cooperators:
S. Klausner, R. Bryant, D. Bouldin, M. Quigley, D. Cherney, CCE
Agents
The sustainability of long-term use of waste materials as fertilizers and liming materials should be assessed relative to commercial fertilizers and other soil amendments currently in use, some of which contain significant concentrations of heavy metals.
There is a need to characterize the present status of New York State soils with regard to trace metal content, to estimate the loading of these metals that is occurring from commercial fertilizers, animal manures, sewage sludges, and other soil amendments, and to establish a mass "balance sheet" to determine whether present or proposed practices will lead to harmful metal accumulation in soil. The impact of metal accumulation must be measured by the effect on economically important crops (maize, alfalfa, beans), under conditions of less than optimal pH.
Goals: to better understand the risks associated with increases in heavy metals in N.Y. soils, and to improve our capacity to make appropriate recommendations with respect to practices that add heavy metals. Specific objectives:
1. To characterize heavy metal inputs to agricultural soils in N.Y. from commercial fertilizers, animal manures and sewage sludges.
2. To assess bioavailability of heavy metals in different source materials (soil, manure, sludges, etc.) to selected crops (alfalfa, maize and snap beans) on farms.
3. To assess the impact of sludge-borne metals on groundwater quality.
4. To develop spatial data bases of heavy metal contents of N.Y. soils to assist decision making about land spreading of metal-contaminated wastes.
5. To conduct detailed field-scale mapping and monitoring of soil and crop metal contents on selected farms that have used sludges for some time.
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Principal Investigators:
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
Tammo S. Steenhuis, Department of Agricultural & Biological
Engineering
Murray B. McBride, Department of Soil, Crop & Atmospheric
Sciences
Ellen Harrison, Cornell Waste Management Institute
The environmental impact of waste flows from dairy farms is coming under increasing scrutiny. The goal of this project is to better understand the environmental risks associated with the land application of manure and wastewater sludge in the Northeast. This project addresses three areas of concern: 1 ) the effects of total loadings and rapid transport phenomena on nutrient losses to surface waters and groundwater from land-applied wastes; 2) the additional nutrient and potentially significant trace metal losses resulting from wastewater sludge applications; and 3) the potential for pathogen transport from land-applied manures and sludges. Simulation modeling of these processes will improve our capacity to recommend and implement protective management practices.
1. Monitor the sources, mobility and fate of nutrients and trace metals on several dairy farms with histories of long-term application of manures and sludges.
2. Determine the relative mobility of nutrients and metals from manure, low-nutrient manure and sludge in laboratory-scale undisturbed soil columns with differing soil textures.
3. Monitor the farms and experimental systems used for Objectives 1 & 2 for the presence and mobility of pathogens.
4. Develop an integrated simulation modeling framework that comprises nutrition management, waste management and environmental transport components.
5. Involve diverse stakeholders to ensure that research directions remain relevant and useful.
6. Develop a shared understanding among diverse stakeholders as to the results of the research, and to disseminate results and recommendations to a wide audience.
Principal Investigators:
Tammo S. Steenhuis Cornell University, Department of Agricultural
& Biological Engineering Riley-Robb Hall, Ithaca NY 14853.
PH: 607-255-2489; Fax: 2554080 e-mail: TSS1@cornell.edu
Murray B. McBride Cornell University, Department of Soil, Crop
& Atmospheric Sciences 910 Bradfield Hall, Ithaca NY 14853
PH: 607-255-1728; Fax: 255-8615 e-mail: MBM7@cornell.edu
Focus Categories: ST (Solute Transport), TS (Toxic Substances), MOD (Models)
Keywords: Contaminant transport, heavy metals, leaching, phosphorus, pollutants, preferential flow, sludge, soil physics, unsaturated flow, water quality, water quality modeling
Application of municipal wastewater sludges (or biosolids) to land is being widely promoted as a cost effective management alternative. Conventional wisdom assumes little risk of mobility of sludge-applied trace metals to groundwater. However, many field studies are unable to account for a substantial fraction of sludge-applied metals when the receiving soil is examined several years after application. Leaching from the soil profile is a potential mechanism for the apparent losses. We have observed substantial movement of sludge-applied metals via preferential flow paths facilitated by complexation with soluble organics irk both experimental and field systems. These phenomena (not accounted for in the US EPA assessment of groundwater risk) may increase the risk of leaching of sludge-applied metals to groundwater, especially in the Northeast where soils are relatively shallow and leaching rates are high, and may thus present an unforeseen long term environmental risk. Rates of nutrient mineralization from land-applied sludges are also poorly defined, and over application may result in groundwater contamination. A more recent concern with land-applied sludge is the presence of surfactants and metabolites (nonylphenols) thought to act as endocrine disrupters, and for which there is little field data regarding concentrations in sludge and sludge-applied soil or regarding leaching potential.
The proposed work seeks to expand, verify and model our current field and greenhouse observations of metal leaching from land-applied sludges, and to screen soil, sludge and water samples for surfactants and metabolites. This project will be substantially leveraged by the use of existing well-defined field sites and experimental systems, and by ongoing simulation model development.
1. To examine a well-defined undisturbed soil column system for metal mobility following sludge applications using an existing matrix of 78 undisturbed soil columns (2 soil types x 2 initial soil pHs x 5 sludge products).
2. To examine a well-defined field application site for evidence of long-term metal losses and current mobility, using a set of long-term test plots representing a range of sludge types and loading rates.
3. To observe current percolate and groundwater metal concentrations at a large-scale agricultural sludge application sites being selected for use in a related farm system nutrient/metal budget research project.
4. To use measured mobility results to refine and calibrate a preferential flow solute mobility model. Once calibrated, the model will allow extension of the data to various sludge loading and percolation rates for a range of soil, sludge and climatic conditions typical of the Northeast.
5. To screen soil and water samples taken for above objectives for surfactants and metabolites. This study will be exploratory in nature, focusing primarily concentrations and leachability of 4-nonylphenols.
The results of the study will contribute to our understanding of the potential risks to water quality posed by land application of sludges, and will contribute to the base of knowledge needed to define land application practices that are protective of water quality in the Northeast.
Agricultural and Environmental Impacts of Sewage Sludge Additions to New York Soils
M. B. McBride, W. S. Reid, J. M. Duxbury, and S. De Gloria,
Dept. of Soil Crop and Atmospheric Sciences
T. S. Steenhuis, Dept. of Agricultural and Biological Engineering
E.Z. Harrison, Cornell Waste Management Institute
1. To characterize heavy metal inputs to agricultural soils in N.Y. from commercial fertilizers, animal manures and sewage sludges;
2. To assess bioavailability of heavy metals in different source materials (soil, manure, sludges, etc.) to selected crops (alfalfa, maize and snap beans) on farms;
3. To determine N mineralization rates for different types of sewage sludge used in New York;
4. To develop spatial data bases of heavy metal contents of N.Y. soils to assist decision making about land spreading of metal-containing wastes; and
5. To monitor the sources, mobility and fate of nutrients and
heavy metals on dairy farms with histories of long-term application
of manures and sludges.
LEADERS:
M.B. McBride, 125 Soil. Crop and Atmospheric Sciences
D.J.R. Cherney, 127 Animal Science
J.H. Cherney, 125 Soil, Crop and Atmospheric Sciences
L.J.Thompson, 478 Population, Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences
COLLABORATORS:
Carl Albers, Steuben County extension
Greg Albrecht, Cayuga County extension
David Bradstreet, Broome County extension
Anita Deming, Essex County extension
Ellen Harrison, Cornell Waste Management Institute
Dean Sprague, Cattaraugus County extension
All county extension collaborators will assist in identifying
appropriate farms to sample, and will work with the farmers to
obtain permission and also to minimize excessive concern before
project results are evaluated. County extension collaborators
also will assist in collecting historical records of sludge applications
on sampled sites. including, sludge and soil analyses, and still
deliver the summarized project results to interested farmers in
their area. The Cornell Waste Management Institute will assist
in distributing results regionally, nationally, and to appropriate
state and federal agencies.
1. Assess the overall extent of lime-treated sludge application in NYS to permit comprehensive sampling of the range of sludge of pest soil types and crop species involved in sludge applications in NYS.
2. Collect soil and plant samples from a range of sites with a history of sludge application. Currently there is no available database in the United States to provide the potential range of molybdenum (Mo), copper (Cu) and Sulfur (S) uptake in forage crops grown fields receiving lime-treated sludge applications.
3. Summarize and assess the possible risks involved with lime-treated sludge application on agricultural lands in regards to molybdenum copper and sulfur.
4. Distribute the results and conclusions to NYS farmers.