Polyacrylamide preparations for protection of water quality threatened by agricultural runoff contaminants

Preparaciones de poliacrilamido para la protección de la calidad del agua amenazada por contaminantes agrícolas

Entry, James A. and Sojka, R.E. and Watwood, Maribeth and Ross, Craig (2002) Polyacrylamide preparations for protection of water quality threatened by agricultural runoff contaminants. Environmental Pollution. 120:191-200.

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Abstract

Waste streams associated with a variety of agricultural runoff sources are major contributors of nutrients, pesticides and enteric
microorganisms to surface and ground waters. Water soluble anionic polyacrylamide (PAM) was found to be a highly effective
erosion-preventing and infiltration-enhancing polymer, when applied at rates of 1-10 g m-3 in furrow irrigation water. Water
flowing from PAM treated irrigation furrows show large reductions in sediment, nutrients and pesticides. Recently PAM and
PAM + Ca0 and PAM + Al(SO4)3 mixtures have been shown to filter bacteria, fungi and nutrients from animal wastewater. Low
concentrations of PAM [175-350 g PAM ha-1 as PAM or as PAM + Ca0 and PAM + Al(SO 4) mixture] applied to the soil surface,
resulted in dramatic decreases (10 fold) of total, coliform and fecal streptococci bacteria in cattle, fish and swine wastewater leachate
and surface runoff. PAM treatment also filtered significant amounts of NH4, PO4 and total P in cattle and swine wastewater.
This points to the potential of developing PAM as a water quality protection measure in combination with large-scale animal
feeding operations. Potential benefits of PAM treatment of animal facility waste streams include: (1) low cost, (2) easy and quick
application, (3) suitability for use with other pollution reduction techniques. Research on the efficacy of PAM for removal of protozoan
parasites and viruses and more thorough assessment of PAM degradation in different soils is still needed to completely
evaluate PAM treatment as an effective waste water treatment. We will present analysis and feasibility of using PAM,
PAM + Al(SO4)3 , and PAM + CaO application for specific applications. Our results demonstrate their potential efficacy in reducing
sediment, nutrients and microorganisms from animal production facility effluents. P

Item Type:	Article
NWISRL Publication Number:	1079
Subjects:	Irrigation > Furrow irrigation > Erosion > Polyacrylamide Irrigation > Furrow irrigation > Runoff losses Polyacrylamide (PAM) > Water-soluble PAM (WSPAM) > Runoff Water > Water quality > Polyacrylamide Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:50
Last Modified:	09 Nov 2016 18:33
Item ID:	141
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/141