Chloride Transport Parameters Prediction for a Clay-Loam Soil Column

Water scarcity makes treated wastewater an unavoidable supplementary irrigation water source. Furthermore treated municipal wastewater quality depends on the fresh water quality and usage as well as on the wastewater treatment plant’s degree and efficiency. The main recipient of all chemical compounds contained in this effluent, via irrigation, is soil. Models have been developed to predict factors involved in contaminants movement phenomenon through soil. In the reused effluent, chloride is much of a concern as a conservative pollutant. In this work the chloride breakthrough curves were determined for a clay-loam packed soil column by applying a one dimensional advection dispersion equation, to obtain estimates of the solute transport parameters. The comparisons between experimental and calculated results were satisfactory and also conclusions were derived about the flow conditions in the soil column and its uniformity. Also comparisons were made between calculated and cited in the literature values of the parameters satisfactorily.