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Application of Sewage Effluent to Columns of a Mountain Meadow Soil: I. Errors in Calculating the Transport of Ionic Salts¹

ABSTRACT

A series of soil columns was prepared using a device to ensure uniform packing. These columns were filled with the top 70 cm of the profile of a mountain meadow soil. All columns were leached with 0.01N CaSO₄ and then irrigated for 12 weeks with sewage effluent from Hayden, Colorado. Two columns were destructively sampled each week to determine bulk density and the gravimetric moisture content. Porous cup extracts of the solution phase were obtained from seven depths in five columns, which were destructively sampled after 12 weeks of irrigation with the sewage effluent. The transport of ionic salts was calculated for the 9 weeks of steady-state flow using the principle of mass conservation.

An error analysis showed that the error terms were additive with depth and were the same order of magnitude as the calculated fluxes. The measurement of the electrical conductivity of the porous cup extracts provided the largest component of the error term. If an error of 0.05 mg/cm^–2 day^–1 is desired for a calculated salt flux of 0.5 mg/cm^–2 day^–1 for the bottom 10-cm increment of a 70-cm column, the electrical conductivities would have to be measured to the nearest 0.003 mmho/cm.

¹ Contribution from the Dep. of Agronomy, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, and published as Scientific Series Paper no. 2499.

² Assistant Professor, Professor of Agronmoy, and Soil Scientist, USDA, SEA-AR and Professor of Agronomy, respectively.

Received for publication November 19, 1979. Accepted for publication May 21, 1980.