Agronomic quality of recycled water from the Albacete sewage treatment plant

摘要

In the Albacete sewage treatment plant an input of 48,000 m~3 of wastewater is registered each day: 42,000 m~3 come from residential areas and 6,000 m~3 from industrial activity. The purified sewage is poured into a water canal and is used for the irrigation of crops such as corn and winter cereals. The goal of this study was to evaluate the agronomic quality of this effluent in horticultural crops. A drip irrigation experiment was done with Lactuca sativa L. Two main treatments were used, in one of them the plants were watered with purified sewage, and in the other with drinking water. In addition, each treatment was subdivided in three levels of irrigation, representing different fractions of the total water requirement of the crop. Height, diameter, dry and wet weight, and several chemical parameters were periodically measured in the plants. From a chemical point of view, the results obtained showed an acceptable agronomic quality of the purified sewage from the Albacete treatment plant. However, the long-term effects of the usage of this water should be evaluated.