TITLE:
Soil Quality of a Semi-Arid Pasture Irrigated with Reverse Osmosis Wastewater—A Case Study from Northern New Mexico
AUTHORS:
Omololu J. Idowu, Kevin A. Lombard, Don Hyder, April L. Ulery
KEYWORDS:
Soil Quality, Salinity, Total Dissolved Solids, Grassland
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Water Resource and Protection,
Vol.7 No.14,
September
22,
2015
ABSTRACT: Soil quality indicators were assessed in two adjacent fields in northern New Mexico near a reverse osmosis (RO) facility. One field had been cleared of native vegetation, sowed with a pasture mix and irrigated with saline RO wastewater (electrical conductivity (EC) of 2.73 dS/m) (WW) for two years. An adjacent field of non-irrigated, undisturbed native vegetation (NV) that received only natural rainfall was sampled for comparison and assumed to be representative of baseline values. Measurements included mean weight diameter (MWD), dry aggregates > 2 mm (D > 2 mm), dry aggregates